RWBY: Get REKT
by Bryanprime917207
Summary: A new story begins, and guess what? It's as stupid as possible. We hope you enjoy the misadventures of team REKT as they prank everyone, beat up Cardin for fun, piss off Glynda, and just be overall nuisances. Rated M for language and eventual fun stuff. (Just being safe guys!) Enjoy! Co-op with Onihelix
1. Chapter 1 The Red Hunter

**A/N: HEY EVERYBODY thebossman207 IS BACK! Sorry for dippin for so long, I'm back with a new story about RWBY that is way less cringy lol and I have help from my friend OniHelix with writing it so hopefully you guys will enjoy it! As for Is This A Rider?, the story will be finished as a oneshot when I have enough downtime, I honestly don't have time or motivation to redo the whole story but I will be getting my arse buckled down for this one and I can promise that we will crank out chapters as quick as we can, and just a side note, I really missed being on this site and I'm glad to be back in the saddle and giving you something to do. Constructive criticism is appreciated, but as the characters in this story would say, don't be a cunt. Warning: this story will be very dumb overall, we're doing it on purpose. Anyway, I'll let my boi Oni say what he wants, and after that, welcome to the fuckin shitshow, on with the chapter!**

**Oni: What is up my dudes. As previously stated, I'm now over here helping out my boy with this story, a fine collab we call Get REKT. Don't worry about me though, I still plan to work on my stories as usual, I'm just taking a little break to make sure these get up and running smoothly. But yeah, as theboss said earlier, we're being dumb on purpose. Don't take it too seriously! I'm going out of my way to be as stupid as possible, so just sit back and laugh at this garbage! So take your chapter and enjoy it you animals.**

**;)**

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RWBY: Get REKT

Chapter 1

The Red Hunter

It had been many a day since he'd received his acceptance letter to Beacon. While many considered it quite the honor, he didn't really think much of it. It was just the next step for him, after all. Speaking of next steps though...

"Yo where the _fuck_ am I going?" he said out loud, looking around. Though the letter he'd received had given him the address for the transport for orientation, he… kinda sorta sucked ass with directions. Absolute dukie.

Checking his scroll, he once again examined the address he had copied from the letter in the hopes of being able to find it in this absolute labyrinth of a city.

"It says I gotta go to the intersection of 9th and Regent, but fuck me if I know where either of those are…" he said, rubbing his eyes with his free hand. Looking around once more, he was relieved to see a dust shop in the distance. Figuring if anyone would know where the Beacon transports were, it would be the shopkeepers in the area who sold dust. No one uses dust quite like an academy.

Heading over and going inside, he quickly examined the bag he had slung over his shoulder, making sure he was stocked up on dust. Gently setting the bag on the ground and rummaging around, he ignored the magazines he had, the worn set of keys, an old rusty shotgun, a photo of a boy with his parents, and a pair of weaponized gauntlets. These were Duality of Man, the boy's weapons of choice. The right one, silver and gilded with crimson, bore a retractable blade on the back. The left, silver and gilded with azure, possessed a total of four gun barrels mounted upon it. Sadly, he only found a few dust rounds packed away, so he knew he had to get more.

Looking up, he was greeted by the man running the shop glancing at him. He didn't blame him, though. It's not everyday a guy like him walked into your store, even with a huntsman academy so close by. First off, he was tall. Hella tall. Dummy tall. How tall? Let me tell you, he was tall. 6'4"! That's tall.

Did I mention that he was tall? 'Cuz he's tall.

Aside from his towering height, his most defining trait was his build. My mans was _swole_. A complete juggernaut. Walk into a room and his triceps get there five minutes later. He built.

Otherwise, however, he didn't stand out too much. His outfit wasn't too flashy; it was nothing but black jeans and a t-shirt, black boots, a wine red jacket, a blue beanie, and the bag we had already mentioned.

Taking a quick look around the shop he found the rounds he needed and took them to the register, producing from his wallet the Lien required to pay for it all.

"Oh, before I go," the boy said, packing away his new ammo, "can I ask where the pickups are for trainees? I'm a new recruit for Beacon but I have no clue where I'm going."

The man nodded and took the boy's scroll, going to the map screen and placing a marker on the location he was supposed to be going.

"Noice thanks fam," he said before leaving, the man rolling his eyes. These Beacon kids were getting weirder and weirder…

Now with a better idea of where to go, he was distraught to see that he was on the exact opposite side of Vale than he needed. "Fuck," he mumbled to himself, beginning his walk. There was no point in waiting, as it was getting dark pretty quickly…

[-0-]

Despite the boy's efforts, he was unable to get to the transport area before nightfall, and as such was forced to walk through the Vale streets at night. Checking his scroll, he was again distraught to see that he had been walking in circles, and as such was still only a few blocks from the dust shop from earlier.

"You gotta be shitting me," he said, leaning back and groaning. "Why does this whole city look the damn same?!"

After his shout of grief echoed throughout the surrounding cityscape, he heard a few noises in the distance, turning to see it was coming from an alleyway nearby. Heading over, he walked down to see a few teenagers roughly his age picking on a stray dog, throwing rocks at it and hitting it with sticks.

Taking a deep breath, he took a few quiet steps forward before grabbing one of the teens and yeeting him into a nearby dumpster. "Surprise, motherfucker," he said as he did so, the teen hitting the lid and closing it as he fell in.

"Aight who else wants to catch these hands?" the new Beacon recruit asked, one teen telling him to fuck off and threw a rock at him. He caught it however, said "no u", and chucked it right back at him, knocking him out.

With both of his friends now unconscious, the final looked around to try and find an escape route, but was distressed when he found no obvious path to do so.

"You're only getting outta here once I jam your face up your ass, fucko," he said, cracking his knuckles. "I'll be gentle."

The boy quickly went to work beating the absolute shit out of the final animal abuser, slowly approaching the dog and letting it smell his hand before picking it up and caressing it.

"Hush, puppy, it's all gonna be okay now," he whispered, petting the dog. He remembered an animal shelter he had passed earlier, and as such followed the signs in the area to bring him back to it. On his way, however, he heard a few gunshots sounding in the distance.

"Oh nice, more things to do!" he shouted, though he then looked down at the dog in his arms. "Er, I guess not this time… Heck, I wanted to beat the shit outta more punks…"

Taking a few more steps and ignoring the gunshots, he shivered a bit, as with the night air came a lonely chill. _Shoulda brought an extra jacket_ he thought to himself, _It's way too damn cold just for this one…_

Regardless, he continued to the shelter, eventually getting there and dropping off the dog he had rescued. After he had dropped off the dog, he stopped and watched as in the shelter they aired a rerun of the previous Vytal Festival finals, a couple of students who had proved to be above and beyond the best of the best, or rather, a couple of total chads who proceeded to beat the absolute shit out of each other. Finishing the rerun and watching as the triumphant student claimed victory he got up and began heading back out and towards the pickup still marked on his scroll, he passed by the source of the gunshots from earlier, the police already being on the scene.

"What happened here?" he asked one of the cops, the cop he had asked turning to him and putting away his notepad.

"Dust robbery," the cop responded. "That Roman Torchwick guy again, according to the girl who was there when it started. Luckily there was a Huntress in the area, so no one got hurt. Well…" he said, looking at the men on the ground, "no one got hurt that wasn't trying to rob the place."

"That Huntress really did a number on them, huh?" the boy asked, though the cop shook his head.

"It was the girl," the cop said. "I hear she was a student at Signal, but none of the first responders saw her. I guess that Huntress grabbed her and left before we got here, but it's not like it matters all that much; nothing too expensive was lost, and we've got all these guys ready to be taken in."

"A Signal kid, huh?" the boy asked. "That really it?"

"Well," the cop said, thinking, "there was this other kid vlogging or something, he was pretty annoying."

"Aight cool, welp, you guys have fun putting the shitheads in jail, I'm gonna go back about my day," he said, the cop nodding and pulling back out his notepad. The boy just turned and headed back out, following the location on his map in the hopes of getting to the pickup spot before it got too late, as he was already out pretty late.

"Gotta go fast, it's getting colder…" he said to himself as he walked. Despite his hopes, he was still a long way away from the pickup, and even passed by a bookstore in his nearly aimless wanderings. "Tukson's Book Trade, huh?" he wondered aloud as he walked past it, though he stopped to examine the sign. "Might have to take a look next time I'm out in Vale…"

In time, he actually made it to the pickup ship. "Fucking finally," he whispered as he approached it, the person at the loadpoint sighing and getting up from his chair.

"Didn't think there would be anyone else coming this late at night. Whatever, what's your name, kid?" he asked, grabbing the list from next to his seat.

"Orion Rubidus," the boy said proudly, hands on his hips.

"...Right," the man said as he flipped through the list for Orion's name, though he certainly took a while to find it. Orion was getting nervous, honestly, this was taking too long… "Oh, there you are, last page. You're free to get on. It won't be until morning that we leave, but we've got plenty of spare pillows and sleeping rolls for those who get here early. Check with the folks on board, they'll get you settled."

"Lit thanks," Orion said as he got on and did as the man said, getting a pillow and sleeping roll to crash with until the ship took off. Finding a more secluded area, he laid down his stuff and crawled in, as though today was mostly mundane, he had been wandering for hours…

"And tomorrow, I start going to Beacon; kicking ass, taking names, kicking more ass, maybe finding some quality ass while I'm at it… We'll see."

And with that, he drifted off to sleep, dreaming of clapping cheeks, in the good way and the fun way…

[-0-]

Though morning came eventually, Orion didn't wake right away, as it had been a late night. He awoke closer to noon, finding that his secluded corner was still rather secluded, only one or two new students having found their way back there. Figuring it was time to start the day, Orion stood and gathered together his belongings, as well as the bedding he had been granted before putting it all away.

Slinging his bag over his shoulder, he began walking to the viewing platform, though he bumped into and knocked over a much smaller girl.

"Oh, my bad!" he shouted, setting down his things to help her up.

"Oh no, it's my bad! I wasn't looking!" she said as Orion helped her up.

"Just pay more attention next time, yeah?" Orion asked, the girl nodding. "Okay good. Hey, maybe I'll see you when classes start?"

"Yeah, maybe!" she cheered before running off.

"God she's fuckin smaaall," Orion said, thinking back to the girl he had just spoken to. He would have continued, but he was drawn from his thoughts by the sound of a dude vomiting in the background. "Oh rough dude, I know how that feels. Reminds me of when I ate that 5th bowl of soup… It was worth it though, fuck me sideways that was some good soup."

As he took a seat, he saw that there was a news story regarding the dust robbery from last night, regarding how despite police efforts, Roman Torchwick had escaped arrest once again.

"That Signal kid must have really scared him off, huh?" Orion said as he leaned back and started messing with his scroll. "Some kinda bite-sized badass…"

As he sat, he saw that the small girl he had bumped into was talking with a much more well-developed girl, and they seemed to occasionally glance at him then giggle, though he paid it no mind. Wasn't the first time anyone had done it anyway.

Getting bored, he stood up and began wandering, but stopped when he felt a hand grab his shoulder.

"My dipshit detector is going ham…" he said, stopping. Dipshit Detector™, it's like Gaydar for dumb people.

Regardless, things were only now starting to get underway, and they were going to be lit.

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**As you guys may have guessed, this is more a character intro than a first chapter, and there will be one more like this before we get to the actual story, but trust us, it's worth it. Hopefully you guys have as much fun reading as we did coming up with this, and we hope you will enjoy what else we have in store. Go check out OniHelix as well, he has great stories and is the main reason this story is funny. Thanks for reading and reviewing! Oni, anything to add?**

**Oni: Not that much, my good sir, I think you've got it mostly covered. However, I do wanna just say that this chapter was theboss' boy. Next chapter… That's MY boy. I gave you guys a hint, but trust me… It's gonna be way fuckin dumber. Now I don't know if I'm allowed to say this here since it's not my story and all but fuck it, I do what I want.**

**OniHelix out!**

**As alwasys everyone, 'Till All Are One!**


	2. Chapter 2 Born of Trees, Royal and White

**Oni: In case you guys couldn't tell, BryanPrime was mostly in charge of the last chapter. Yeah, sure, I made a few edits here and there, but that was his chapter. But this one… this one is mine. And now we get to meet my boy. He's such a good boy, but fuck is he a dumb boy. But why should I tell you when I could just show you? Last chapter you guys met the R of REKT.**

**Get ready to meet the E.**

**A/N: We don't own RWBY, just team REKT. But yea here we are, chapter 2, and we hope you guys will like it! Also this boi is goodest boy. Orion is just a beefcake honestly. But with that said, on with the chapter!**

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Chapter 2

Born of Trees, Royal and White

Stream Title: GUESS WHO GOT ACCEPTED INTO COMBAT SCHOOL? (NO CLICKBAIT)

"So last video I went to an abandoned factory and killed off all the Grimm, but now this! I'd like to thank all of my new supporters on Cashgrab, you guys rock! Special thanks to my tier three supporters MrBigs, TheKing247, A_Huntsman_but_Better, and MistressofCoffee for your continued support!"

Unlike our previous hero who didn't think much of his acceptance to Beacon, our next dingus was quite vocal about his pride. So vocal, in fact, that he was streaming about his exploits. It was rare that he streamed like this, his videos were usually edited and posted after the fact. It just goes to show how much this meant to him.

"Anyway, I got my letter of acceptance a fewcouple weeks back, and hooo doggy was I hyped!" he shouted, almost dancing in place. "I mean, not every day you get accepted to a combat school like this one!"

He stopped for a moment, reading the chat.

MrBigs: Oh nice

Devil'sAdvocate: Poggers

69allthetime: I LIKE TO 69

MistressofCoffee: Omg what school?

A_Huntsman_but_Better: :O

MistressofCoffee: I hope it's Beacon!

TheKing247: yo beacon would be sweet ive got some buddies that go there

Fullofshit: LOL Beacon sucks, Shade or bust

69allthetime: 69 OR BUST

IHAVEGOODIDEAS: Atlas forever, scrubs

woo_yeah: in b4 he says Haven and crushes all your fantasies

"Ugh, mods, can you get rid of that 69 guy, I gotta keep my streams clean so I don't get banned. But I'll reveal what school I'm going to eventually, for now I'm gonna do a charity stream! Yep, all donations to this stream go to the Vale Humane Society, because dogs are better than people!"

MistressofCoffee: How are you so sweet omggg

Devil'sAdvocate: Hell yeah I love animals, Poggers

A_Huntsman_but_Better: Bro hell yeah

Fullofshit: for da dogs

MrBigs: yYes yes, dogs are good

IHAVEGOODIDEAS: Sounds like a future Atlas student to me hmmm

woo_yeah: *Haven student, caught your typo there for ya bud

TheKing247: Gguys chill, focus on the message and not the reason

"And TheKing247 once again proves why he's a king 24/7. So, I also set up a poll for the stream with the 4 main academies on it, and I want you guys to guess what academy I've chosen. Those who guess right will get first access to the new chat emotes I've commissioned!" he said as he smiled into his scroll. "Don't worry though, it's just temporary. Votes are free, so you won't be at any loss, and losing isn't that big of a deal since everyone will get to use them soon! I just thought this would be fun is all. So…" he said, glancing at the poll he was referring to, "it looks like as of yet Atlas is in first with 13,457 votes, followed closely by Beacon with 12,759 votes. Shade and Haven are pretty far behind though, 7,513 for Shade and… oof, 4,932 for Haven. You guys have something against Haven? It's not a bad school…"

The streamer continued walking through Vale, using a drone such to go hands free. It was a decently advanced drone too, especially if it could follow him like that. It even slowly circled him such to catch him from a multitude of angles, showing off his outfit in its fullest. Like most Huntsmen in training, he had meticulously chosen combat gear, though unlike most Huntsmen in training, they weren't sponsored by weapon manufacturers or combat gear retailers. At the base, he had a green long-sleeve compression shirt with a turtleneck tucked into a pair of white jeans, each from a high-end fashion company known for comfortable yet elegant fabrics. Over that he had a white short-sleeved jacket with green edges that he left open, the jacket also having a high collar that came up to the trainee's mouth. This jacket was also a sponsored piece of gear, from a company that made advanced textiles used in some Huntsman armor. Due to this, it was a unique blend of nylon and polyester, making it both lightweight and durable, but it also had kevlar woven through it to help protect against slashing damage. He also bore black fingerless gloves and boots with white soles from a sports company, and as such were designed to give him better grip when running or grabbing things, though they were also comfortable enough to prevent blisters. Covering most of his body were a multitude of black composite armor pieces ribbed with interior metal for extra strength, located on his chest, outer thighs, shins, forearms, and the backs of his hands, though his chest piece sat underneath his jacket. This armor all came from a ballistic plate manufacturer, and as such boasted high strength yet low weight. On his back there was a weapon, the Anti-Material Sniper Sword that was this trainee's signature weapon, Great Escape. This blade in particular was held in place by a contraption that magnetized the blade and held it close, the rest of the build being carbon fiber such to avoid interference with the magnet, made by a company that was also part of a branch of the Atlesian Military. This was all held on by a pair of straps, one of which looping under his right arm and having a multitude of custom explosives he made himself, the other having extra padding on his right shoulder to ease the strain of his large weapon, held together with a badge that possessed the boy's emblem. On a third belt he had over his jacket he had a mask to cover the lower half of his face, made by a construction company with the purpose of keeping ash, dust, and toxins out of his mouth and nose. Speaking of which, he was actually rather handsome, possessing reasonably long shaggy white hair parted to the right, with a pair of goggles to assist in keeping the hair out of his soft green eyes. These goggles were from a hunting company, and as such were made with built-in infrared and night vision modes, though the green lenses and black strap were obviously chosen to compliment his outfit, which was clearly chosen with both fashion and function in mind.

"Oh, forgot to mention, I got a new piece of sponsored gear!" he said to the camera, smiling as he gestured to the large contraption on his back. "This bad boy came in all the way from the Atlesian company CG Enterprises! It's an experimental piece made for large Huntsman weapons, and though it's not quite in the alphaits final design phase, it works extremely well. I may even hold onto it when they make the alphafinal version just because I'm so impressed with this one, especially since this particular model was designed specifically for Great Escape. I just love it so much! They even went so far as to paint it with my colors for me, I was so happy! Anyway, this works super well, so for all you aspiring Huntsmen out there, CG Enterprises has some really quality stuff. 10/10, really."

Still walking, he passed by a few people who were actually watching his stream, and was kind enough to say hello and take pictures with them, which they obviously posted on their social media the moment they could. It wasn't that big of a deal though; he loved his fans.

"I won't spoil anything yet, but I'll just let you guys know that my next planned video is another stream, ideally when I move in," he said as he walked. "You know, now that I think about it, with me going to a big combat school and all, I need to stock up on dust. Does anyone in chat know where the nearest dust shop is? I'm at uhhh… The corner of 17th and 35th."

MrBigs: Oh, there's actually one two blocks down

MistressofCoffee: Keep going straight and it should be on your left!

TheKing247: From Dust Till Dawn is the name I think

woo_yeah: I'm from Mistral, sorry bruh

woo_yeah: Oh wait no they've got you lol

"...Yo, I see it guys, From Dust Till Dawn! Thanks everyone," he said as he walked inside, passing a short girl with a red hood perusing the weapon magazines in the front. "Hey," he said, tapping her on the shoulder and getting her attention despite her headphones, "I'd recommend looking at the ones in the back, they're usually newer."

"Oh, thanks," she said, heading to the back and looking them over, looking surprised and diving into a magazine.

"Yep, they usually put the older ones in front so they can try and sell them first, but the newer ones with the cooler stuff are always in the back," he said into his camera while nodding. "It's the same at all of these stores. They always put their older stuff up front to try and get rid of it."

MistressofCoffee: Oh you're right, I always go to the back to see what's newest in stock!

A_Huntsman_but_Better: So insightful

Fullofshit: Neat

Heading around and grabbing what he needed, he put his purchases on the counter and paid, putting a bit extra in the tip jar. As he was getting ready to leave, however, he was stopped by the same red hooded girl he had spoken to earlier tapping him on the shoulder.

"Hey um, could I ask to…" she said, thinking for a moment, "can I see your weapon?"

"Oh yeah, sure!" the streamer replied. It was rare for people to ask to see his weapon, mostly they asked for a picture or an autograph.

Removing the weapon from his back, he held it out to the girl, though he was sure to turn the safety on. As she took it from him, however, she nearly fell from the weight of his blade, though he caught her. "Whoa, careful," he said, the girl laughing it off.

"I know, I know, it was just heavier than I thought it would be," she said with a chuckle. "It's really cool though, I like how high-caliber it is."

"Yeah, I'm more of a one shot one kill kinda guy," he said, throwing some kind of hand sign into the camera. "Plus it works well with my Semblance."

"Wait, what are you doing?" the girl asked, seeing his scroll being held up by a drone.

"I'm streaming!" he replied cheerfully. "I do a bunch of different stuff though. I've done gear reviews, pranks, Grimm hunts, gaming, you name it. Right now I'm doing a charity stream, all donations go to the Vale Humane Society!"

"Awww," she said as she cupped her hands in front of her. "That's so nice of you! I wish I could help…"

The boy smiled for a moment before reaching into his wallet, pulling out a fair bit of Lien. "What do you mean? I could have sworn this bit of cash right here was being donated in your name…"

The girl simply laughed for a moment, covering her mouth. "That's actually really sweet of you. I haven't watched anything of yours though, but I'll be sure to check you out!"

"Hey, I appreciate it! My community is the best out there, I'm sure they'll welcome you with open arms. In fact," he said, putting an arm around the girl and looking at his scroll camera, "what do you guys think? Wouldn't you all appreciate another member of the family?"

A_Huntsman_but_Better: Hell yeah dude, the more the merrier!

MistressofCoffee: Yes, we've got plenty of room!

woo_yeah: woo yeah let's go

MrBigs: We'd happily welcome another

Fullofshit: I've never seen him turn anyone away aside from trolls

TheKing247: We don't even get many trolls

Devil'sAdvocate: Aside from that 69 guy that is

"Looks like they like you! I'll be sure to keep an eye out for you then. What's your name?" he asked.

"I'm Ruby!" the girl replied jovially. "Ruby Rose."

"Well Ruby, I'm Gwydion Elgin," he responded, labelling himself. "But my friends call me Gwyn. I expect you to do so too!"

"Okay, Gwyn," Ruby responded. "I'll be sure to check later. I really like your gear, and I wanna see it in action!"

"You will soon!" he responded happily. "I just got accepted into combat school! I haven't told my buddies here which one yet, but I'll reveal it later tonight!"

"Oh that's so cool! I go to Signal right now, but I'm hoping to go to Beacon when I get older!" Ruby said with a smile.

"Who knows, maybe we'll see each other!" Gwyn responded, smiling. "I've heard really good things about Beacon. But anyway, I've gotta be on my way, I've still got a bit of time before the reveal, so I'm gonna keep heading around. Remember folks, I'm in central Vale, so if anyone is nearby and wants to come say hi, do it! I love meeting you guys!"

"It was great meeting you!" Ruby said happily as Gwyn shook her hand.

"You too, Ruby!" Gwyn replied, turning to head out of the store, though he was shoved aside by a few men in black, followed by a man with a bowler hat.

"Do you know how hard it is to find a dust shop open this late at night?" the man asked, the shopkeeper putting his hands up as a gun was trained on him.

"Just take the money!" he said cautiously, though the man laughed.

"Oh, we're not here for the money!" he said, turning to the men with him. "Get the dust."

The men did as they were told and produced a few dust canisters, going around and filling each one to the brim. A couple of the men went around back to see what was there, only to see Ruby reading a magazine with her headphones on, the other man seeing Gwyn recording everything.

"Are you recording me?" the man asked.

"Yep," Gwyn replied.

"You gonna stop?" he asked further.

"Nope," Gwyn replied, turning to see Ruby dealing with her own assailant. The two nodded to each other and turned back to the men pestering them. Naturally, this preceded the two of them smashing their respective assailant through the front glass. "I'll pay for that, sir!" Gwyn shouted as he did so.

Landing on the pavement out front, Gwyn readied his weapon as Ruby readied hers, a massive scythe. Gwyn nodded in approval before slamming the flat of his blade into one of the men, knocking him into another and knocking them both out.

MistressofCoffee: Show them what you can do Gwyn!

MrBigs: YYour skills are always a thing of beauty to behold

Fullofshit: Fuck em up

Gwyn didn't have to do as his chat commanded, however, as Ruby quickly went to work beating the robbers senseless.

"Yooo guys check this out, this kid is mad good," Gwyn said as he focussed his scroll on Ruby as she decimated the criminals. "She said she was from Signal? Man, they've been stepping it up recently if these kids are doing this, and I even went to Signal…"

Ruby made quick work of the remainder before the man in the hat walked out of the store, twirling his cane, and he didn't look pleased. This was made even more evident as he raised his cane and fired it, launching a firework at Ruby that detonated with surprising furocity. In their combined confusion, they missed it as the man ran off, Ruby seeing that he was climbing the fire escape of a nearby building. She asked the shopkeeper if she could go after him, the shopkeeper nodding before she disappeared, running after the man.

"Now that it's a bit safer, let me reimburse you for the window," Gwyn said, pulling out his wallet and handing the shopkeep what he figured would cover it. "If this isn't enough, reach out to me on one of my videos, we can work out a way to get this fixed."

The shopkeeper smiled and went back inside, Gwyn smiling at him as he did. He heard a clink in the distance though, and turned to see the man throw a large dust crystal at Ruby before sighing, getting his sword back out. He watched as the man fired a shot at the dust crystal, Gwyn shaking his head as he did something odd. Right as the man shot at the crystal, Gwyn seemed to just… trade places with the dust crystal, casually blocking the explosive round fired from the man's cane.

"What did…?" Ruby asked, Gwyn throwing up that same hand sign from earlier.

"Semblance," he said before turning back to the man. "Were you about to blow that girl up? Yeah, that's bad."

"Man, these kids are weird," the man whispered to himself as Gwydion aimed his sword at him, the back edge sliding back to reveal both the barrel of a rifle and a scope to go with it. The man raised his cane to defend, but was more surprised to see that once Gwyn fired, he seemed to fly at him at insane speed. Startled, he ducked as Gwyn flew past him, muttering heck as he flew away.

Grabbing his scroll, he continued his stream as he flew through the air, looking a bit miffed.

"Kinda messed up, that dude dodged my attack and now I'm in the air," he said with a sigh. "Oh well, landing will be cake."

Looking at the ground that was now quickly approaching, he aimed his gun upwards and fired a bullet right before he hit the ground, which culminated in him basically doing a tiny hop right above the ground, landing easily and dusting himself off.

"Well guys, looks like I'm pretty far away from the dust shop now, but I'm gonna see about heading back, gotta make sure Ruby is okay," he said into his scroll, getting a decent jog going in order to get back to the shop, a cop car driving past him. "Hmmm," he said in thought before he was suddenly sitting in the front seat of the car, the cop turning to him and screaming in confusion for a moment, before pulling over.

"What the hell are you doing, kid?!" he shouted, Gwyn shrugging.

"Catching a ride, I guess. You going to the dust robbery?" he asked, the cop nodding.

"Um, yeah?" he said cautiously. "Kid, how did you get in here?"

"Semblance," he said, leaning back. "Mind if we get going? There's a kid there and I want to make sure she's okay."

"There's a kid?!" the cop shouted, putting the car in drive. "Why didn't you say so?!"

With that, he floored it, speeding off towards the crime scene.

[-0-]

Upon reaching the crime scene, Gwydion was quick to get out of the car, looking around quickly to see that while Ruby wasn't there, neither was the man with the hat.

"Huh, they're gone…" Gwyn said, shrugging. "I'm sure she's okay, she did a number on these guys, so I'm sure she's fine."

"There was a huntress according to the call we got," the cop said, getting out of the car. "So I'm sure that if that kid isn't injured anywhere, then she's likely okay."

"I'll take your word for it, Mr. Policeman," Gwyn said, looking around and not seeing anyone of any real importance in the immediate vicinity. "So… You watch any of my content?"

"Your what now?" the cop asked as more cars showed up, as they needed more in order to bring all of the guys to the station.

"I make a bunch of videos over a bunch of different topics," Gwyn explained, pointing to his scroll. "I'm even streaming right now!"

"Whoa, hold on, you're recording this?" the cop asked. "I'm gonna need you to either stop or go away, this is still an active crime scene, so no recording unless you have a press pass."

"I uhhh," Gwyn said, "I don't have one."

"Then I'm gonna have to ask you to shut your scroll off or leave," the cop said, turning to him.

"Uuuggghhh fiiine," Gwyn said as he turned to leave. "I just wanted to chat…"

"Mhm," the cop muttered as he took notes of the scene.

"Well, guys," Gwyn said into his scroll, shrugging, "looks like we're nearing the end of our time together, so let me take another look at that poll. It looks like Beacon overtook Atlas with 18,576 votes, Atlas sitting pretty with 15,894 votes. Shade has closed the gap a little bit and has 12,314 votes, but Haven is still pretty far behind with 7,357 votes. Looks like you guys are hoping mostly for Beacon or Atlas, huh?"

MistressofCoffee: Let's gooo Beacon!

MrBigs: Beacon would be excellent

A_Huntsman_but_Better: I'd be fine with either one, I've heard good things about both

Devil'sAdvocate: Yooo poggers

Gwydion kept walking, eventually coming across an airship with a man sitting in front of the entrance, a list off to the side.

"You here for pickups?" he asked, Gwyn nodding.

"Yep!" he replied cheerfully, the man standing and getting out his list.

"What's your name?"

"Gwydion Elgin," he replied, the man flipping through a few pages before marking something off with a pen.

"Okay, you're good to head on. We won't be leaving until tomorrow, so go get a pillow and a sleeping roll from one of the workers inside," the man said, Gwyn nodding.

"Thanks man," he said as he went inside the airship, grabbing a pillow and sleeping roll. Setting it off to the side, he sat down and focussed on his scroll, smiling.

"Well guys, this is it. Tomorrow, I start orientation at my combat school. My stuff is getting shipped from home, so I'll be able to settle in quickly. I hope you guys have cast your votes, as I'm gonna reveal which school I'm going to in 3… 2… 1…!" he said, holding onto it for suspense.

"It's Beacon," said a random student as they passed by, Gwyn sighing.

"Thanks for stealing my thunder!" he shouted before turning back to his scroll. "Yeah, it's Beacon."

MistressofCoffee: YES!

MrBigs: Excellent choice

TheKing247: ;)

woo_yeah: heck

Fullofshit: heck

IHAVEGOODIDEAS: heck

"So yeah, the people who voted Beacon will soon get access to the new emotes I commissioned, use them wisely and use them often!" Gwyn said happily. "Well, that's it for this stream guys. Looks like we raised… Wow, 12,413 Lien! I'm proud of you guys! This will all get donated as soon as possible, as well as some extra from myself. Thanks to everyone who watched, and just remember folks… Keep it excellent. See you guys next time!"

With that, Gwyn completed his stream, closing everything he needed to and pocketing his scroll,. lLaying out his sleeping roll and laying down on it, he takingook a deep breath. while recounting the events of the day.

"And I get to do it all again when I set up my room… Let's gooo," he said quietly, drifting off to sleep.

STREAM FINISHED

TOTAL UNIQUE VIEWS: 114,789

PEAK VIEWER COUNT: 93,634

NEW SUBSCRIBERS: 319

STREAM ARCHIVED

[-0-]

The following day, Gwyn woke rather late, as the previous day had tired him out. Getting up and putting away his sleeping supplies, he started walking around, a few students recognizing him and asking for pictures, pretty standard stuff. The odd thing out, however, was the absolutely huge kid sitting alone on his scroll, Gwyn watching as he got up and started walking around, bumping into…

"Ruby?" he asked aloud. Sure, she was hella good for her age, but she had told him that she was going to Signal still. He paid it no mind, as someone of her skill making it into Beacon made perfect sense. No, what he was the most worried about was the huge boy she had bumped into, as he seemed quite out of place. Sure, it was a combat school, and a few kids were bound to be bigger, but this dude was… well, gargantuan. Muscles for days. He watched as the two spoke for a moment before parting ways, and he was going to go speak to the large boy, but he stopped when the news came on regarding the dust robbery from the previous night.

"Oh man, that was Roman Torchwick?" Gwyn asked out loud. "I should have known, that dude is in the news constantly. Oh well, I'm sure they caught him," he continued, only to hear moments later that he escaped. "Oh."

Seeing what he wanted, he shook it off and walked over to the big boy, reaching up and putting a hand on his thick shoulder.

"My dipshit detector is going ham…" he said, Gwyn blinking a few times before responding.

"I'm sorry your what now?"

* * *

**Oni: Mmm yes Gwydion Elgin, such a good boy. He's a dumb boy though. And an internet personality! I know my description of him was rather long-winded, but know that I have a few design sketches of him that I intend to put up eventually, so keep an eye out for how we do so. We should also have a few sketches of Orion up soon too, so look for those as well. ****Additionally, we'd like to add that we have decided to allow readers to request having their names added to Gwydion's chats and comment sections. All you gotta do is leave a review asking about it and we'll reach out and see what we can do. ****A****Now, a****nything you wanna add?**

**BryanPrime: Well, chapter 2 is here for you heathens, and noice Oni that was aces. I only had to do one edit and it was just something my OCD ass noticed. Here's chapter 2 everyone, chapter 3 is coming, and we hope you all enjoy it. There will be much more stupidity in what's to come. Thanks for reading and reviewing, and** **remember****:** **Prepare your anus. **

**Sounds good to me. OniHelix out!**

**'Till All Are One!**


	3. Chapter 3 Up, Up, and a Fuckin' Way

**BryanPrime: So here we are at chapter 3, getting into Beacon Academy and starting the tomfuckery, I hope y'all are holding on to your cheeks. We don't own RWBY, just team REKT. And don't worry, we will come back to K and T. Oni, anything to add?**

**Oni: Not too much, just poggers. ;)**

* * *

Chapter 3

Up, Up, and a Fuckin' Way

"My dipshit detector," Orion clarified as he looked down at Gwydion. "It detects dipshits such as yourself."

"So you're calling me a dipshit?" Gwyn asked, putting his hands on his hips.

"Now now, don't get me wrong; I'm a dipshit too," Orion said, holding his hands up. "It just means we'll probably get along pretty well."

"Oh, cool!" Gwyn cheered, holding out his hand for a handshake. "Name's Gwydion Elgin, but my friends call me Gwyn."

"Orion Rubidus," Orion responded, taking his hand in his. "Nice to meet you, Gwyn."

"Glad to see we're already on the same page!" Gwyn said with a smile as they shook.

"I don't read much," Orion said, shrugging.

"It's uhhh," Gwyn said, thinking, "it's a figure of speech."

"Not a writer either," Orion said, Gwyn just nodding and releasing his hand.

"Ok," Gwyn said, placing his hands in his pockets. "So, what made you pick Beacon?"

"Mostly just 'cuz of how close it is, easy access to Vale for school supplies and such. Not to mention I heard that a few really popular old teams came from here, and they seemed pretty stronk. How about you?" Orion asked, Gwyn thinking for a moment.

"Good question!" Gwyn said, wagging his finger. "I wanted to stay reasonably close to home, but at the same time I wanted to be far enough away in order to make the experience unique. Plus costs weren't too bad, and a lot of my friends are going here…"

"Yeah ok," Orion said, not really listening. What an ass. Gwyn paid it no mind, however, and continued chatting with the taller boy as a familiar red hood made its way towards the two of them.

"Hey Gwyn!" Ruby said, walking up behind him and tapping him on the shoulder.

"Oh hey, Ruby!" Gwyn said, turning around to face her. "Say, you told me yesterday you were going to Signal, but here you are on a transport to Beacon. What's going on here?"

"Oh uhhh, I got accepted early?" Ruby said, Gwyn nodding.

"Makes sense. You kicked some ass at that dust robbery, I don't blame them for letting you in," Gwyn said, smiling.

"Oh, stop it…" Ruby said shyly, rubbing the back of her head.

"Careful lovebirds, we aren't even on campus yet, and you're already flirting..." Orion pointed out jokingly, gesturing to Gwyn and Ruby. "So, Gwyn, you gonna introduce me?"

"Yeah, fine," Gwyn responded, a little embarrassed. "Orion, meet Ruby. Ruby, meet Orion."

"Hello there, I'm Orion," Orion said, offering a hand to Ruby. "Don't worry I just look big and mean, that's only kinda true."

Boy is he not wrong.

"Um, hi," Ruby said, cautiously placing her hand in his, but was surprised to see that his handshake was very gentle. "Oh, dang."

Gwyn laughed for a moment before looking over and seeing another familiar face, though only familiar to him.

"Wait, Yang?" he said, drawing the attention of the blonde that Ruby has spoken to prior.

"Gwyn?" she responded, walking up to the group. Orion glanced down a bit too far as he noticed the young huntress approaching, and immediately looked back up and a bit too high for anyone not to notice and figure out what had happened. "You're going to Beacon too? Small world!"

"I'll be damned, it is you!" Gwyn responded, giving the blonde a friendly hug. "You never told me you had plans to go to Beacon!"

Orion just stood there awkwardly, too afraid to look down at the moment, for fear of his own wandering eyes. No, instead he leaned down towards Ruby, saying, "Yo they're ignoring us already."

"This happens pretty often with her," Ruby conceded.

"You never asked," Yang replied, Gwyn remembering that he saw Yang and Ruby talking earlier.

"Oh, I see you've met my friend Ruby!" Gwyn exclaimed, though Yang rolled her eyes

"Actually, you mean, 'I see you've met my little sister, Ruby'," Yang retorted, Gwyn blinking a few times in confusion.

Orion finally looked back down, looking from Yang to Ruby back and forth, visibly confused and trying to put the pieces together. "Wait…."

"Yeah, wait," Gwyn agreed, "don't you two have different last names? Yang 'Xiao Long' and Ruby 'Rose'?"

"Yep," the two of them responded in tandem. Orion looked completely dumbfounded, and honestly, who could blame the poor bastard?

"You two don't think that's weird? At all?" Orion asked, the girls looking at each other for a moment.

"Nope," they responded in unison.

"Of course you fuckin' don't…" Orion facepalmed, still very much confused and brain hurty. "Do we get an explanation for the names thing or are we just gonna be left in the dark?"

"Nope," they replied once more, both boys throwing their hands in the air in defeat.

"Oh come the fuck on!" Orion exclaimed, exasperated. "Fucking tell us, my brain hurts enough as it is trying to figure it out!"

The sisters looked at each other one last time and shook their heads, one final 'nope' coming from the two of them, Gwyn leaning over and resting his hands on his knees.

"Uuuggghhh, why not?" he asked. "We're just curi-"

Gwyn would have continued pressing on, but he was interrupted by the sound of the projector displaying local news changing abruptly, now showing a middle-aged woman wearing glasses and most notably, a fancy-ass cape. "Hello, and welcome to Beacon," the woman said kindly; after all, first impressions matter.

"Who's that?" Yang asked almost immediately.

"My name is Glynda Goodwitch," the woman almost seemed to respond. This was followed by a quick 'oh' from Yang, while Ruby, Gwyn, and Orion watched intently.

"You are among the privileged few who have received the honor to attend this prestigious academy," the projection began, now sounding slightly more official, and honestly a bit rehearsed, as if she had done this before many a time. "Our world is experiencing an incredible time of peace, and as future huntsmen and huntresses, it is your duty to uphold it." Orion found that hilarious, but laughed on the inside to not ruin the moment, even if she did say duty with a straight face. "You have demonstrated the courage needed for such a task, and now it is our turn to provide you with the knowledge, and the training to protect our world."

After she finished, she faded away with a soft bell-like sound, allowing for an excellent view of Vale from a bird's eye view perspective. Ruby ran to the window, turning to her sister and saying, "Look, you can see Signal from up here!... I guess home isn't too far after all." Yang walked over and put a hand on her sister's shoulder, telling her that 'Beacon is our home now.'

Orion lumbered over and looked out over Vale, and towards Signal Academy in the distance. "I didn't even realize we had taken off to be honest," he said, slightly surprised.

"Honestly, neither had I," Gwyn admitted to Orion.

Just then, all four students heard something that immediately caught their attention, as the sounds of nearby sickness usually do, and sadly the poor boy who had been sick before takeoff was not currently any better. In fact, he seemed worse as he backed away from the window just next to the one they were standing next to, and ran past them to find a trash can if he could.

"I guess the view isn't for everyone," Yang said as she watched the poor guy run off.

"It was a nice moment while it lasted," Ruby added rather awkwardly.

Orion decided to change the subject, to hopefully salvage what was left of said moment. "I wonder who we're gonna meet!" he said with a bit more enthusiasm than was necessary.

"I just hope they're better than vomit boy…" Ruby added sarcastically before glancing down and noticing something on her sister's boot. "Eww Yang, you've got puke on your shoe!"

Yang started to freak out for a moment, but Gwyn put a hand on her shoulder to calm her down. "I got this," he said, walking over to the garbage can nearest them. As with before with Roman and the dust crystal, Gwyn traded places with the vomit, the refused contents of the boy's stomach plopping loudly into the can. This resulted in Gwyn standing right next to Yang, a foot upon her now clean shoe.

"Oh gosh, I forgot you could do that," Yang said in remembrance, Ruby nudging her to get her attention.

"How did he do that?" she asked, Gwyn overhearing and laughing.

"Semblance," he said with a shrug, Yang just nodding in understanding.

"Pretty handy semblance my dude," Orion said, only a tiny bit jelly.

"Okay, but what does it do though?" Ruby asked, Gwyn smirking in response.

"I trade places with things," he said. "I thought that was obvious."

"No but like how exactly do you-" Ruby started, but was cut off by the sound of the comm system on the airship coming to life.

_This is the pilot speaking, we will be arriving at Beacon shortly. Please prepare to disembark._

Orion, hearing this, immediately walked over to the rack in the corner where several students had put up their weapons and gear and grabbed Duality of Man, strapping them on. "I guess we should grab our stuff before we touch down, right?"

"Fair," Gwyn said as he grabbed his own weapon, placing it on his back. The two boys watched as Ruby too walked up and grabbed her scythe, but looked expectantly at Yang, who simply smirked.

Holding her arms up and shaking her hands, drawing attention to the golden bracelets she wore, she said, "I never put mine away."

"I mean, if they were that small I wouldn't either, but my gauntlets are chonky boys," Orion stated flatly while putting on the one piece of armor he actually used, a small shoulder pauldron on his right arm, with a fin-shaped blade on it and a large sliver taken out of it that looked like battle damage instead of strange design.

"Bruh, what even is that?" Gwyn asked, looking at the armor. He'd never seen armor like it before, and some of his sponsors had offered him some weird stuff in the past…

"It's part of a set my dad owned but only used once," Orion stated as he tightened the pauldron, "so I guess you could say it's my inheritance. Honestly though, you've never needed to shoulder check a beowolf before?"

"I usually shoot them before they get too close," Gwyn said with a shrug, "and then I stab the ones that do."

"Fair, I usually just punch things," Orion said, checking the alignment of the sights on his left gauntlet, "and if they don't go down after that, I resort to shooting… And stabbing if necessary."

"You're a brawler too?" Yang asked, Orion turning to her and replying with a smirk of his own.

"You could say that, punching is the most fun. But, sometimes swish swish stab works better," he responded, popping his knuckles a bit. "Or just use a cannon."

"Well duh," Yang responded, "we all need some way to keep some distance."

"Oh yeah," Gwyn added, "that's why I wanted a sniper rifle."

"You've got a sniper rifle too?" Ruby asked. She remembered seeing his weapon, but she couldn't tell if it was built to snipe or for more close-range application.

"Yep. Sniper gaaang," he said while throwing up his signature hand sign.

"Snipers are great," Orion added knowingly, "and picking off grimm one by one seems pretty handy, but I'd rather hit them all at once."

"That's why I carry explosives," Gwyn said as he gestured to the dust grenades on his harness.

"That's why I made this," Orion said, then proceeded to flex his left arm a bit, causing the gauntlet to shift into an arm mounted cannon formed from the four small barrels that had disappeared.

"Yes, we get it boys, you're both hung," Yang said, drawing the attention of both boys and bringing a blush to their face. "You can stop trying to impress us."

"I'm not-!" Gwyn shouted, stopping himself. "That's not what I'm doing! Damn it Yang, you always do this!"

"If I was trying to impress you, I wouldn't be using my cannon," Orion said before he paused for a second, thinking about what had just come out of his mouth. "...Wait." After he realized what he accidentally implied, he slumped, and let out a quiet, "Heck." Flexing his arm again, the cannon shrunk back into the gauntlet form.

"Bro, are you _trying_ to get your ass beat?" Gwyn whispered to Orion. "You may be big, but Yang is, well… Yang. Just trust me here."

"I will, cause I honestly regret what was said," Orion whispered back. "Should we dip to save face or just take it?"

"Yeah, I was about to say," Ruby said, drawing their attention, "the ship is landing right now, doors are about to open up."

"Oh thank god," Gwyn said, making a break for the exit.

"Sweet release," Orion said dramatically, following close behind.

"Gwyn may be pretty good looking," Yang said, hands on her hips, "but he still doesn't know how to talk to girls."

"Really?" Ruby asked.

"Yep," she clarified. "Though he's gotten over that stutter at least…"

"He used to have a stutter?" Ruby asked. "You wouldn't be able to tell…"

"Only when talking to girls," Yang specified.

"Huh, maybe his videos have helped out with that…" Ruby said, Yang furrowing her brows in confusion.

"Videos?" she asked.

"Yep," Ruby said, pulling out her scroll, "I guess he does streams and stuff. Maybe he started doing it towards the end of the semester?"

"Yeah, maybe," Yang said. "You gotta show me though, I bet it's super cringy."

"Nope, it's actually pretty good," Ruby said, showing Yang her scroll as she started looking around the Beacon courtyard. "He's pretty funny… Oh wait, that's a collapsible staff! *Gasp* And that's a FIRE SWORD!"

"Whoooaaa, calm down there sis, they're just weapons," Yang said, preventing her sister from chasing down any weapons that crossed her path.

"They aren't just weapons! They're extensions of ourselves! Part of us, even! And they're SO COOL!" Ruby shouted, glancing at more and more weapons.

"Well, why can't you swoon over your own weapon?" Yang asked, hands on her hips. "Aren't you happy with it?"

"Of course I'm happy with Crescent Rose!" Ruby cheered as she folded out the weapon, basically cuddling with it. "I just really like seeing new ones. It's like meeting new people, but better…"

"You, Gwyn, and that Orion guy got along fine, you just need to go make some friends like them!" Yang said as Ruby put away Crescent Rose.

"I was actually thinking I could just hang out with you?" she half asked, though Yang almost winced in response.

"Actually my friends are here. 'Kay gotta go, see you, bye!" she shouted as more people gathered around her, the group leaving at such a speed that it sent Ruby spinning and babbling incoherently.

"Wait, where are you going?! Are we supposed to go to our dorms? Where are our dorms? Do we have dorms?" she asked, still spinning. "I don't know what I'm doing…"

With that, Ruby succumbed to her dizziness and fell, landing into a cart carrying a multitude of expensive-looking suitcases.

"What are you doing?!" shouted a new voice, snapping Ruby out of it.

"Uh, sorry!" she said quickly as she stood, seeing that the source of the displeasure was a girl in baby blue with long white hair.

"Sorry? Do you have any idea how much damage you could have caused?!" she continued to shout, Ruby holding a case and not knowing what to do.

"Uuuhhh…" was all Ruby could manage. She was bad at talking to people, it seemed. Really bad.

"Give me that!" the white haired girl shouted as she snatched the case from Ruby, opening it up and revealing its contents. "This is _dust_ \- mined and purified from the Schnee quarry!"

"Uuuhhhh..." Ruby said once again, not being able to find the words to reply with.

"What are you, brain-dead?" she asked as she grabbed a red vial from the case and shut it. "Dust! Fire, water, lightning, _energy_!"

"I... I know..." Ruby stuttered as dust poured out of the vial the girl shook in her face, coughing as she inhaled it.

"Are you even listening to me?" the girl continued. "Is any of this sinking in? What do you have to say for yourself?!"

Ruby was going to respond, but she felt that undeniable tickle in her nose, rearing back and sneezing. This was no ordinary sneeze though; this was a sneeze powered by a cloud of pure dust. Needless to say, this resulted in a rather large explosion that blew a crater in the pavement.

The white haired girl's eye twitched for a moment, as her entire body was covered in the soot created by Ruby's sneeze bomb. "Unbelievable! This is exactly the kind of thing I was talking about!"

"I'm really, _really_ sorry!" Ruby stammered, the white haired girl continuing with her rage fueled rant.

"Ugh, you complete _dolt_! What are you even _doing_ here?" she 'asked' (yelled). "Aren't you a little young to be attending Beacon?"

"Well, I-I..." Ruby stuttered, though she was cut off once again.

"This isn't your ordinary combat school," she said slightly more calmly than before, but that came and went very quickly. "It's not just sparring and practice, you know! We're here to fight _monsters_, so... watch where you're going!"

"Hey, I said I was sorry, princess!" Ruby shouted, finally having had enough of being yelled at.

"It's heiress, actually," said yet another new voice, both turning to see the source, a girl with long black hair and a large bow. "Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Dust Company, one of the largest producers of energy propellant in the world."

"Yo, the fuck happened here?" called a familiar dingus, followed closely by a shorter dingus.

Gwyn and Orion had been walking over for a minute after hearing Ruby's extremely loud sneeze, the only reason they had heard it however being that they had stopped during their full sprint away from Yang and embarrassment.

"Who the fuck fell out of orbit?" Orion said, disbelief all over his face, "There's a whole ass crater!"

"Looks like someone didn't have a good landing strategy…" Gwyn added, examining the crater. "Must have hurt pretty bad."

"Indeedingly." Orion agreed, still a bit shocked.

"But dang, that's Weiss Schnee?" Gwyn asked. "Odd seeing one of the Atlas elites out in Vale…"

"I'm not sure what you mean, but I'm glad to see there are some people out here with a brain!" the now-named Weiss said, smiling smugly.

"It's the same company infamous for its controversial labor forces and questionable business partners," the black haired girl added.

"Wha-" Weiss stuttered as Ruby began chuckling, though she wasn't having it. "How dare- The nerve of... Ugh!" No longer willing to speak to anyone present anymore, she grabbed the dust vial the girl held and stormed off, her helper grabbing her luggage and following closely after.

Orion watched as she walked away, and happened to look down toward her ass. Immediately he discreetly got Gwyn's attention by tapping his shoulder, telling him, "I bet you 10 lien right now that I will tap that before we graduate from Beacon."

"Yeah, sure," Gwyn said as he rolled his eyes. "I'll take that bet."

"I promise I'll make this up to you!" Ruby shouted, not having heard the conversation between the two idiots. "I guess I'm not the only one having a rough first day... So, what's..." she said as she turned to the black haired girl, only to see that she was walking off, Ruby deciding the best course of action was to just… flop onto the ground. "Welcome to Beacon..."

"Hey…" called a cautious voice as a hand was held out to Ruby. "I'm Jaune."

"Ruby," she said as she took his hand, Jaune helping her up.

"Aren't you the dude that threw up on the ship?" Gwyn asked.

[-0-]

"Look, all I'm saying is that motion sickness is a lot more common than people think it is!" Jaune said, still defending himself.

"Bro, you threw up on Yang's shoe," Gwyn said, gesturing to the ground as he did. "If it's as common as you say it is, then you'd think your aim would be better."

"Well, I'm sorry!" Ruby laughed. "Vomit Boy is just the first thing I came up with!"

"Well, how would you like it if I called you Crater Face?" Jaune asked snidely, Orion struggling not to laugh.

"Hey, that explosion was an accident!" Ruby shouted, Jaune waving it off.

"Well, the name's Jaune Arc," Jaune said. "Short, sweet, rolls off the tongue, ladies love it."

"Okay but do they?" Gwyn asked, Jaune slumping over in defeat.

"N-No…" he said, though he perked right back up. "They will though! At least I hope they will… My mom always says that- Actually, never mind."

The group laughed for a moment before silence overtook them. A very awkward silence.

"So…" Ruby said, breaking the silence as she grabbed out Crescent Rose, embedding the tip into the ground. "I got this thing!"

"Whoa!" Jaune shouted, stepping back in caution. "Is that a scythe?"

"It's also a customizable high-impact sniper rifle!" Ruby said as she held the weapon closer, Orion and Gwyn nodding in understanding.

"A-wha...?" Jaune asked, not quite understanding. Oh Jaune, you dingus.

Ruby, figuring she'd dumb it down for him, cocked Crescent Rose. "It's also a gun."

"Oh. That's cool!" Jaune said, only half understanding.

"So what've you got?" Ruby asked, Jaune fumbling around with his gear for a moment.

"Oh! I, uh..." he said, quickly unsheathing the sword at his side. "I got this sword!"

"Oohh," Ruby said with slight interest. Orion and Gwyn looked at it rather skeptically, however, as it seemed to be rather… plain.

"Yeah, and I've got a shield, too!" he added quickly as he grabbed the scabbard, expanding it into a shield.

"Ok, so what do they do?" Gwyn asked, touching the surface of the shield. It didn't seem to be very special beyond the folding out part...

"The shield gets smaller, so when I get tired of carrying it, I can just…" he said as he fumbled with it a bit, struggling to keep it closed before strapping it to his belt, "put it away..."

"But like…" Orion asked, "wouldn't it weigh the same?"

"Yeah, it does..." Jaune admitted dejectedly.

"Well, I'm kind of a dork when it comes to weapons, sooo…" Ruby said as she put away her scythe. "I guess I did go a little overboard when designing it."

"Wait - you _made_ that?!" Jaune asked, mildly shocked. Crescent Rose was just so… Complex.

"Of course!" Ruby confirmed. "All students at Signal forge their own weapons! I'm sure Gwyn did too, he went to Signal with Yang. Didn't you make yours?"

"It's a hand-me-down," Jaune explained as he looked at his blade. "My great-great-grandfather used it to fight in the war."

"Sounds more like a family heirloom to me!" she said with a laugh. "Well, I like it! Not many people have an appreciation for the classics these days."

"Yeah, the classics..." Jaune said, more quietly than he had been speaking earlier.

"That shit ain't a classic," Orion said, pointing at the sword, "it belongs in a museum!"

Ruby ignored Orion's outburst, however, and just kept walking. "So why'd you help me out back there? In the courtyard?"

"Eh, why not?" Jaune said, waving it off. "My mom always says, 'Strangers are just friends you haven't met yet.'"

After that, the group just walked around seemingly aimlessly. It took a moment, but eventually Orion spoke up. "Uh guys, where the fuck are we going?"

"Good question, Jaune?" Gwyn asked, turning to the dorky blonde. "Where are we going?"

"Um, I was following Ruby," Jaune said, Ruby blinking a few times.

"I was following you though," she responded.

"Heck," sighed Orion as he slumped forward.

[-0-]

In time, the group finally made it to the auditorium, and they were clearly among the last ones there, as the room was absolutely packed with new students. The group took a second as they looked around to try to find a spot to stand, Yang popping out and waving to her sister.

"Ruby! Over here! I saved you a spot!" she cheered, waving to her sibling.

"Oh! Hey, I-I gotta go! I'll see you after the ceremony!" Ruby quickly said to her new friends, running off to stand by her sister.

"Hey, wait!" Jaune shouted as Ruby ran away, holding his hand out to try to stop her. Sadly this was to no avail. "Ah, great. No offense guys, but where am I supposed to find another nice, quirky girl to talk to?!"

As he left, he didn't see that a girl that fit that description was standing behind him, eyeing him as he walked away from her.

Orion and Gwyn, now left more or less alone for some god forsaken reason, looked to each other and shrugged.

"Better find some spots, I guess," Gwyn said, Orion nodding in agreement.

"Place is crowded as fuck though," Orion said as he took a quick look around the room. "I don't think there are any spots left…"

"Bruh," Gwyn said, putting an arm around, er… as around Orion's shoulders as he could, pulling him close and muttering 'Semblance' as he waved his arm in front of them, Orion nodding.

"Fair," he said.

"So yeah, gimme a second," Gwyn said as he looked around, trying to find a decent spot. Eventually, he saw a rather large boy over by Yang, though a few people down from her. "Bam."

Releasing Orion, Gwyn was suddenly replaced with the large boy, and he definitely seemed confused by his predicament.

"Yo, Orion, I found a spot!" Gwyn shouted, waving to the swole teen from his newfound place in the auditorium.

"Wait, that's my spot!" the other boy shouted, Orion putting a hand on his shoulder.

"I think you're not exactly in a spot right now," Orion said, the comparatively miniscule teen turning towards him and looking up in surprise. "You're standing in the aisle. So if you'll excuse me, imma go stand by my boi."

The teen just watched as Orion walked away, joining Gwyn rather quickly since he could just move whoever was in his way.

As for Ruby, she eventually made it to her sister, as she had to get through a multitude of people to get there.

"How's your first day going, little sister?" Yang asked, really driving home the fact that they were sisters.

"You mean since you ditched me and I exploded?" Ruby asked back, Yang covering her mouth and snickering.

"Yikes!" Yang exclaimed. "Meltdown already?"

"No," Ruby clarified, "I literally exploded a hole in front of the school! And there was some fire, and I think some ice...?"

"Are you being sarcastic?" Yang asked, only half serious. There's no way she blew a hole in the ground outside.

"I wish!" Ruby shouted. Unbeknownst to her, however, was that the girl that was the source of her woe stood just behind her. "I tripped over some crabby girl's luggage, and then she yelled at me, and then I sneezed, and then I _exploded_, and then she yelled at me again, and I felt really, really bad, and I just wanted her to stop yelling at me!"

"YOU!" Weiss shouted, startling Ruby enough to scare her into her sister's arms.

"Oh, God, it's happening again!" she shouted, almost crying.

"You're lucky we weren't blown off the side of the cliff!" Weiss shouted, Yang finally understanding that Ruby wasn't lying.

"Oh my God, you really exploded," she said.

"It was an accident," Ruby said as she hopped down from Yang's cradle, "It was an accident!" Weiss instead simply held up a pamphlet labelled 'DUST for dummies and other Inadequate Individuals' to Ruby, Ruby eyeing it in curiosity. "What's this?"

"The Schnee Dust Company is not responsible for any injuries or damages sustained while operating a Schnee Dust Company product. Although not mandatory, the Schnee Family highly encourages their customers to read and familiarize themselves with this easy to follow guide to Dust applications and practices in the field," Weiss said almost robotically, Ruby hardly following even a single word.

"Uuuhhh...?" she 'said', not remembering anything Weiss just said.

"You really wanna start making things up to me?" Weiss asked, Ruby nodding.

"Absolutely?" she half-asked, Weiss pushing the pamphlet into Ruby's arms.

"Read this, and don't ever speak to me again," she said, Yang stepping between the two of them.

"Look, uh, it sounds like you two just got off on the wrong foot," she said, clearly trying to mediate. "Why don't you start over and try to be friends, okay?"

"Yeah!" Ruby said, putting away the pamphlet. "Great idea, sis! Hello, Weiss! I'm Ruby! Wanna hang out? We can go shopping for school supplies!" she said, clearing her throat out and holding out her hand.

"Yeah!" Weiss shouted, seemingly completely up for a new friendship. "And we can paint our nails and try on clothes and talk about cute boys, like tall, blond, and scraggly over there!"

"Hm?" Jaune mumbled as he glanced in Weiss' direction, having overheard her and figured he fit the description.

"Wow, really?!" Ruby replied, elated.

"No," Weiss said, all 'happiness' having drained from her face. "And if anything, we'd have talked about lean or mean over there," she said, pointing to Orion and Gwyn. They didn't hear her, however, and continued chatting to each other.

They would have continued talking, but the sound of the microphone drew everyone's attention. It happened to be Ozpin, headmaster of Beacon Academy, fumbling with the mic for a moment, Glynda standing next to him.

"I'll... keep this brief," he said, swishing his drink around as he looked over the students. "You have traveled here today in search of knowledge, to hone your craft and acquire new skills, and when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people. But I look amongst you, and all I see is wasted energy, in need of purpose, direction. You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step."

"You will gather in the ballroom tonight; tomorrow, your initiation begins," Glynda said, Ozpin turning to leave the auditorium. "Be ready. You are dismissed."

"He seemed kind of…" Yang said, looking for the right word, "off."

"It's almost like he wasn't even there," Ruby said in agreement.

"I'm a natural blond, you know!" Jaune said, approaching Weiss, who clearly wasn't happy with her new predicament, as she facepalmed nearly the moment Jaune showed up.

[-0-]

Later on, after day had given way to night, the students stopped exploring their new campus and gathered in the ballroom, laying out their sleeping supplies and changing into their pajamas. Some students, however, had gone to bed right when they had been released from the auditorium, ignoring the sense of adventure offered by their new learning environment.

Ruby was among the former, but had eventually settled down and began writing in her journal. As she wrote, Yang fell into her sleeping bag next to her, she too dressed in her pajamas.

"It's like a big slumber party!" Yang exclaimed, though Ruby didn't bother to look up from her journal.

"I don't think Dad would approve of all the boys, though," she said, still writing.

"I know _I_ do!" Yang replied, purring as she watched some of the more presentable guys walk by, though Jaune crossed her path in footie pajamas, causing her to almost recoil as she groaned. "What's that?" she asked, turning back to her sister.

"A letter to the gang back at Signal," Ruby explained. "I promised to tell them all about Beacon and how things are going."

"Aw, that's so cuuuute!" Yang cooed, though she was silenced by a pillow hitting her in the face.

"Shut up!" Ruby commanded, grabbing a different pillow to rest her elbows on. "I didn't get to take my friends with me to school! It's weird not knowing anyone here!"

"What about Jaune? He's…" she said, thinking of a word to describe him nicely, "nice! Plus you've got Orion and Gwyn, they seem fun. There you go! Plus three friends! That's a hundred percent increase!"

"Pretty sure Weiss counts as a negative friend," Ruby muttered, laying on her back. "Down to two…"

"There's no such thing as negative friends! You just made three friends and one enemy!" she said, getting hit by yet another pillow, courtesy of Ruby once again. "Look, it's only been one day. Trust me; you've got friends all around you! You just haven't met them yet!"

The two were going to continue talking, but both were hit by a couple of pillows from none other than Gwyn.

"Shut it!" he shouted playfully. "Some of us are laughing at others as they fail to sleep!"

"You wanna fight, Elgin?" Yang shouted back as she stood, getting into an aggressive stance.

"No ma'am," he replied as Yang threw his pillows back to him.

"That's what I thought," Yang replied, sitting back down. "And it's sir, thank you very much."

"Oh damn she called you the fuck out man," Orion stated tiredly, while trying not to laugh.

Ruby chuckled for a moment at the three before noticing a candle being lit reasonably close to her, turning to see the girl with the bow from the courtyard leaning back against the wall with a book.

"That girl…" Ruby said, Yang turning over and seeing her.

"You know her?" she asked, though Ruby shook her head.

"Not really," Ruby explained. "She saw what happened this morning, but left before I could say anything."

"Well, now's your chance!" Yang said, standing back up and grabbing Ruby, dragging her with her.

"Wait!" Ruby shouted, struggling against her sister's vastly superior strength. "What are you doing?!"

The girl looked up to see Yang and Ruby making their way towards them, Ruby still trying to free herself. She was only released when they got close enough to her, Ruby holding her wrist in pain.

"Hel-looooo!" Yang sang. "I believe you two may know each other?"

"Aren't you…" the girl said, thinking back to Ruby's identity, "that girl that exploded?"

"Uh, yeah! My name's Ruby!" she said. "But you can just call me Crater... Actually, you can just call me Ruby," she said, not wanting to be called Crater Face by another person. Jaune was enough, and she was sure Orion was gonna use it once or twice.

"Okay," the girl said, going right back to her book.

"What are you doing?" Yang whisper-yelled to her sister.

"I don't know, help me!" Ruby whisper-yelled back, smiling at the girl once again.

"So…" Yang said, trying to keep the conversation going. "What's your name?"

"Blake," the girl said with a sigh, having been interrupted yet again.

"Well, Blake, I'm Yang, Ruby's older sister!" Yang said happily, eyeing Blake a moment. "I like your bow!"

"Thanks!" Blake said, the disdain clear in her voice to all but Yang.

"It goes great with your... pajamas!" Yang continued, ignoring Blake's displeasure.

"Right…" Blake mumbled.

"Nice night, don't you think?" Yang asked as Ruby laughed uncomfortably.

"Yes, it's lovely! Almost as lovely as this book!" she said, hoping the sisters got the hint. Unfortunately, they didn't. "That I will continue to read. As soon as you leave!"

"Yeah, this girl's a lost cause," Yang said to her sister dismissively, though Ruby ignored her.

"What's it about?" Ruby asked, finally getting a larger amount of Blake's attention.

"Huh?" she asked, surprised.

"Your book," Ruby clarified. "Does it have a name?"

"Well…" Blake said, taken back a bit, "i-it's about a man with two souls, each fighting for control over his body."

"Yooo, I reviewed that on my channel!" Gwyn shouted, the three turning to see him waving. "It has its moment, but overall I gave it a 9/10. Good choice!"

"Dude do you just have fuckin' radar ears or some shit?" Orion asked, a bit surprised that Gwyn could hear exactly what they were saying. "Sorry, go back to your conversation ladies!"

"Oh, yeah…" Yang said, rolling her eyes. "That's real lovely!"

"I love books," Ruby continued, still ignoring everyone else's outbursts. "Yang used to read to me every night before bed. Stories of heroes and monsters... They're one of the reasons I want to be a Huntress!"

"And why is that?" Blake asked with a playful laugh. "Hoping you'll live happily ever after?"

"Well, I'm hoping we all will," Ruby said, gesturing around the room. "As a girl, I wanted to be just like those heroes in the books... Someone who fought for what was right, and protected people who couldn't protect themselves!"

"That's…" Blake said, thinking for a moment, "very ambitious for a child. Unfortunately, the real world isn't the same as a fairy tale," she finished, her smile having turned to a frown.

"Well, that's why we're here! To make it better," Ruby said with a smile.

"Oh, I am so proud of my baby sister!" Yang said as she hugged Ruby, lifting her into the air.

"Cut it out!" Ruby shouted as she kicked her way out of Yang's grasp, the two falling on the floor and fighting.

"Well, Ruby, Yang," Blake said with yet another laugh, "it's a pleasure to ha-"

She was cut off, however, when Weiss stormed in, clearly displeased. "What in the world is going on over here?!" she shouted, Ruby and Yang stopping dead in their tracks. "Don't you realize some of us are trying to sleep?"

"Yeah!" Gwyn shouted, refusing to look up from his scroll as he pumped a fist into the air. "People who aren't me are trying to sleep!"

"Shuddup Gwyn," Orion slurred, extremely tired. "You're louder than them."

Yang and Ruby quickly got up and dusted themselves off, Ruby because she was getting yelled at, Yang because she was going to go fight Gwyn. Upon realizing who had yelled at them though, Yang pointed accusingly at Weiss, Weiss doing the same when she realized who she yelled at. "Oh, not you again!" they shouted in tandem.

"Shh! Guys, she's right!" Ruby said to her sister. "People are trying to sleep!"

"Thank you." Orion let out, only just barely awake at this point.

"Oh, now you're on my side!" Weiss said sarcastically, rolling her eyes as she did.

"I was always on your side!" Ruby retorted.

"Yeah, what's your problem with my sister?" Yang asked snarkily, her attention now completely on Weiss. "She's only trying to be nice!"

"She's a hazard to my health!" Weiss shouted in response, Gwyn approaching with his scroll in hand, recording.

"No, yeah, keep going,this stuff'll just rake in the views," Gwyn said, chuckling to himself as Weiss turned angrily towards Gwyn.

"Who are you again?" she asked, Gwyn laughing and putting away his scroll.

"The one guy not trying to sleep, apparently," Orion said, a bit more awake now that people had continued to make noise.

"Bite me, Oreo," Gwyn said, glancing over to Orion, only to see him raise a hand to flip him off. "Anyway, Miss Schnee, my name is Gwydion Elgin, but my friends call me Gwyn. You might know me."

"Gwydion, huh?" Weiss asked, unimpressed. "Nope, never heard the name."

"Really?" Gwyn asked, surprised. "I would have thought you would have after I gave that Schnee Dust Company ammo mag a bad review, I heard it cost you guys a fair bit."

"WAIT THAT WAS YOU?!" Weiss shouted, finally understanding who she was talking to. She vaguely remembered some guy being sent the product to review, and he posted a video that had some very not nice things to say about it. And it did cost them. Her allowance went down by over 10% while the company got over the loss.

"Can y'all fuckin' not yell right at this moment," Orion yawned, having got up and got himself a bottle of pop, "We are still in a sleepy time environment."

"Bro wait where'd you get the drink?" Gwyn quickly asked.

"There's a vending machine around the corner, in the hallway," Orion started, and took a quick swig, "Had some good lookin' blue stuff. I decided to get some good good."

"Yo sweet," Gwyn said, his figure being replaced by a garbage can, the sounds of a vending machine working being heard. A few seconds later, the can was replaced with Gwyn, who was now drinking his own bottle, though his was full of a green liquid. "It had something citrus flavored, thus I am a happy huntsman."

"How did you…?" Weiss and Blake asked simultaneously, Gwyn lowering the bottle.

"Semblance," he said quickly, taking another swig.

"That doesn't explain as much as you think," Weiss said, Yang nodding in agreement.

"Ok, I'll agree with you here. Gwyn's Semblance is weird, you wouldn't know what's going on just by looking at it," Yang explained. She would have explained further, but Gwyn held up his finger to stop her.

"Don't ruin the surprise!" he quietly shouted as he lowered his beverage. "Let them figure it out on their own. It's more fun that way."

"Yeah Yang, don't spoil it, spoilers are bad," Orion joked. Having almost finished his bottle, he tilted it back a bit too far and was about to spill all over his shirt, when suddenly, he was an inch further back, and his pop bottle was gone, no evidence it had even existed.

"Orion," Gwyn asked, clearly a bit uncomfortable, "why is there a pop bottle jammed in my pants?"

"Semblance, my boi," Orion replied, completely failing at hiding a smile.

"Of course it is," Gwyn mumbled as he fished the bottle out of his shorts, tossing it into a garbage can reasonably close by. "Thank you for not putting it in my underwear though."

"Dude I may be a shithead but I'm not a monster," Orion said, still trying not to laugh.

"Okay, now I really need an explanation," Weiss said, pointing at Orion. "What did you do?"

"Well, since you asked, my semblance allows me to-" Orion started but was interrupted by Gwyn.

"No," he said, covering Orion's mouth. "Surprise."

It was evidenced by Gwyn's tone that the surprise was not to be spoiled, and apparently that was enough for Orion.

"Aight, aight, I got it," Orion said, having removed Gwyn's hand from his face. He then muttered under his breath to Gwyn, "Sorry man, I got a weakness for her, didn't even think about it."

"It hasn't even been a full day yet, jeez," Gwyn said, Blake laughing nearby. "What's so funny?"

"You two," she said, looking at Gwyn and Orion. "Places like this feel almost stuffy due to how serious it is, but people like you are a welcome breath of fresh air."

"Eh, we try," Orion started, "The world is pretty dark as it is, gotta lighten the mood somehow."

"And I gotta be funny," Gwyn said, shrugging. "I've got a lot of people who're subscribed solely because of some of my prank videos. Gwydion Elgin, by the way, find me on CineMaker if you get the chance."

"Oh duh, sorry, my name's Orion Rubidus," Orion added, remembering to actually introduce himself, "and I guess my nickname has been decided for me."

"Oreo," Gwyn said once again, just in case Blake hadn't heard. "Like the cookie."

"Yeah, no, I get it," Blake said, placing her bookmark in her book and closing it. "I'd say that's enough for one night though. I'll see you all at initiation tomorrow."

And with that, she blew her candle out, removing the one source of light the room still had, plunging it into darkness. The few standing by her stumbled in the dark towards their sleeping spots, Yang tripping and falling over some poor soul as her sister laughed at her. Regardless, everyone made it back (mostly) unharmed, settling in and drifting off to sleep.

Except for two.

"It's time," Gwyn whispered, getting his scroll out and recording once more. "...poopie."

Orion, catching on instantly, whispered in response, "Poopie."

If Gwyn was to be completely honest, he wasn't expecting a response like that, let alone a response that joined him. He didn't mind though, and said 'poopie' once more, yet louder than last time.

_HO_, Orion thought, the games having begun. "Poopie," his reply getting slightly louder as well.

Not to be outdone, Gwyn said 'poopie' again, now at less of a whisper and more of a regular speaking voice.

"Guys, if you don't stop I'm gonna report you to Glynda," said another voice from the opposite side of the room.

However, this threat was unnecessary, as Glynda had heard the two idiots already and was not having it. However, she had not yet identified the culprits. As she walked in, she quickly established what would happen.

"I don't know who's doing that, but if I hear it again I will assign detention for both parties involved," she said.

Orion thought about this, and remembered some jackass from right after the headmaster's speech who was bullying some fellow students, but had got away before he could repay him. Doing his best impression possible, he let out a much louder, "Poopie!"

"Was that Mister Winchester?" she called, the boy she had called out sitting upright and looking worried.

"What? No!" he responded, though Orion's impression was really good, and Glynda bought it.

"Detention!" she shouted, looking around the room. "Who else was causing the problem?"

Gwyn had caught on, however, and remembered another boy that was with this 'Mister Winchester'. "Poopie!" he shouted, doing his best impression of the other offender.

"Ah!" Glynda shouted. "Mister Thrush! Detention for you as well!"

"But I didn't say anything!" the other boy shouted.

"I trust you've learned to avoid causing disruptions like this in the future," she said, crossing her arms. "One week for the both of you. Now go to bed."

Both boys sighed and laid down, not wanting to fight it in case she made it worse for them. Gwyn and Orion looked at each other and nodded, however, each yelling 'poopie' as loud as they could, though naturally they did it with their respective impressions. This brought Glynda back with a vengeance too, and she was angry.

"Four weeks for the both of you!" she shouted, Gwyn and Orion struggling to hold in their laughter. Both turned to each other and smirked, bumping each other's fist.

"Solid," Gwyn whispered.

"Yeet," replied Orion.

"And that's been day one of pranks here, folks," Gwyn whispered into his scroll, making a face as he stopped recording. "It's only gonna go downhill from here. But only for everyone else."

With that, he finally put his scroll away, closing his eyes and drifting off to sleep.

* * *

**A/N: So, here's chapter 3, and as you may have guessed, this story will only get stupider for the time being. Orion and Gwyn are shitheaded memelords, and I even hinted at Orion's semblance for the first time. (Brownie points to anyone who figures it out, and a shoutout of course when we do actually reveal it.) But, as it stands, chapter 4 may take a bit longer, due to this corona bullshit, so, please bear with us. Reviews are always welcome, and don't be a dick! Heh. Also character art is coming for you heathens that need visual stimulation. Anything I missed Oni?**

**Oni: Not that I can think of, so yeah, same old same old. Hope you fuckers enjoyed!**

**OniHelix out!**

**As always, 'Till All Are One!**


	4. Chapter 4 Initiate Initiation

**A/N: HEY WE BACK AND NO HAVE THE CORONA! Heh, anyway, we are on to chapter 4 and we'll now be really getting into the story and stupidity, and the rest of team REKT, as I bet you heathens have been waiting for. Also, we don't own RWBY, just team REKT. We also have started and finished 3 of the four members of team REKT's designs and they will be up somewhere shortly, once the last one is done. Oni, you wanna add anything?**

**Oni: Not much I can think of at the moment, I think you got everything covered. We're hoping to have the final member drawn within a reasonable timeframe though, so keep an eye out for info on wherever we decide to put the idiots. And with that out of the way, let's move on to the shitshow!**

* * *

Chapter 4

Initiate Initiation

The next day, many new students woke to alarms in order to begin their day, as today was initiation! Who wasn't eager to begin their day?

*SNOOORE*

Oh, right, him.

Orion was, evidently, one of the few students who hadn't awoken yet. Not due to lack of trying, mind you, as he had set an alarm. This alarm had been going off for the past five minutes though, and it just wasn't working. He almost seemed to stir for a moment, though he just rolled the other way. He sure was a heavy sleeper, that much was for sure…

Luckily for him, Gwyn wasn't as heavy of a sleeper, and had woken almost an hour earlier and gotten mostly ready, having gotten some breakfast from the staff. This breakfast consisted of nothing more than a water bottle and a breakfast burrito, one which Gwyn munched on happily.

Walking over to where Orion was sleeping, he looked at the teen for a moment before taking another bite of his burrito, chewing in silence before nudging him with his foot in a vain attempt to wake him. Since this didn't work, he leaned down and started talking to him, hoping something less repetitive than an alarm would offer better results.

"Yo, Oreo, it's time to get moving," he said, Orion just snoring in response. "Hellooo, anyone in there?"

Clearly, this wasn't going to work either, so he quickly finished his burrito and water, throwing the trash away and returning to Orion. If nudging and talking won't work, what will? Figuring the answer to that question may very well be pain, he started slapping Orion in the face, gently at first but increasing in intensity. He never went too hard, of course, as slapping the shit out of someone you'd just made friends with the day before wasn't very nice, you know?

Sighing, Gwyn knew what had to be done, and as such took a few steps away from Orion and cracked his fingers in front of himself. "Semblance not even an hour into the day, huh?" he asked himself before doing a backflip with a small 'hup' of effort, trading out with Orion at the apex of his jump and thus sitting on Orion's bedroll peacefully while Orion fell to the ground, finally waking up with a startled snort.

"The fuck?!" he shouted, looking around for a second before sighing, as he heard his alarm blaring and saw Gwyn sitting smugly on his bedroll. "I overslept again, huh?"

"Well I don't know about 'again', but you definitely overslept," Gwyn replied, standing up and cracking his back. "You'd better hurry, Glynda will never let you hear the end of it if you miss initiation because you were too tired."

"Yo, you right," Orion stated, yawning. "Lemme grab a snack and I'll be right behind you."

"Works for me, they've got some breakfast in the cafeteria," Gwyn explained, checking his scroll for time. "After that though, you should grab your weapons and gear and head to the cliffs for the initiation, something tells me there aren't any second chances."

"Aight, aight, let's get this shit in gear," Orion responded, now somehow fully awake.

"Meet you out at the cliff then," Gwyn said, turning to exit the ballroom. "I'll probably have gotten all of my stuff and gotten out of there before you get there. But first, have you heard those rumors about us getting assigned teams and stuff today?"

"Oh yeah, I heard about that," Orion started, "I heard something about getting yeeted into the forest too, but that's probably not gonna happen."

"Oh, for sure," Gwyn said, laughing off the notion. There's no way the first thing a huntsman academy would do is throw them off a cliff. "Say… I don't know if there's much we can do about it, but how'd you like to be on the same team? Not too many others here fit my style all that well."

"Heh, I'm down man, besides," Orion snorted, "it's better than being on a team with Jaune. Low-key I think he's gonna die."

"Yeah, his weapon doesn't give him too many options…" Gwyn admitted, his scroll buzzing. "Ah heck, I'd better get going. Well, see you around, Oreo."

"Not gonna live that one down, am I?" Orion said half to himself. "See ya man. Imma go grab my shit."

With that, Orion grabbed his backpack and turned to leave to go put on proper clothes, Gwyn heading off to grab his weapons. Orion would have done as he intended, but a certain voice caught his ear.

"Wake up, lazy butt!" the voice shouted, far more enthusiastic than it should have been. Orion turned to see a girl with orange hair waking a lean boy with black hair, a pair that seemed all too familiar to him. "It's morning, it's morning, it's morning, it's morning!" she continued, apparently the morning person of the duo.

"I know that voice, it can't be!" Orion exclaimed, suddenly wide awake with a look of extreme happiness. "THUNDER BUDDY!" he shouted, garnering her attention.

"Who said that…?" she asked suspiciously, glaring around the room. Eventually, she locked eyes with the large teen, her eyes widening. "Ren. RenRenRenRenRenlooklooklookwhoitisit'sourfriendohmygoood," she technically said, gently slapping either side of this 'Ren's' face, waking him up completely.

"Who are you talking ab-" he asked, looking to see Orion standing there, swaying back and forth ever so slightly. "Oh, no…"

"I believe you mean Ooohhh…" she said, stepping away from Ren and charging over to Orion, Orion instantly catching on and charging over to the girl.

"YEAH!" he shouted as the two basically tackled each other.

"Orion!" she shouted, she and the teen now pushing back against each other, arms locked. "I haven't seen you in ages!"

"Nora, it's been like 3 years, but still, I can't believe you guys are here!" Orion said, the smile on his face growing by the second. "Hey Ren!"

"...Hello, Orion," Ren said cautiously. He appreciated the larger teen's presence, that much was for certain, but both he and Nora had far too much energy for having just woken up. Especially now that they'd seen each other. "It has been a long time. I'm glad to see that you're well."

"Oh crap, I really wanna catch up, but we gotta get to initiation," Orion panicked, seeing the time. "Aight, story time as soon as we get dorms assigned, got it?"

"It sounds like a plan," Ren said with a small smile, Nora just absolutely beaming.

"More than just a plan, it's a promise!" she shouted, offering a thumbs up and a smile.

"Aces," Orion responded, now in the best mood he had been all week. "I'll see you guys later!"

And like that, he disappeared, as if he was never there.

"I see he still uses his Semblance whenever he can," Ren deduced, Nora waving it off.

"Why not? The more you use it, the better you get with it!" she shouted. "So, you heard about teams, right?"

"I did hear some whispers about it, yes," Ren said, Nora suddenly directly in his face and startling him.

"Now, I know we've been together for a long time- I-I mean not… _together _together…" she said, trying to articulate her thoughts. "Not that I'm not saying that you're not handsome; you are handsome, but that'd just be weird, right?"

Ren just blinked in response, not entirely sure as to how exactly he was supposed to respond.

"Anyway," Nora said, taking his silence as understanding, I hope we end up on the same team together! Oohhhh! We should come up with some sort of plan, to make sure we end up on the same team together! What if we bribe the headmaster? No, that won't work. He has the school…"

Ren simply stayed silent once again, as Nora was definitely the talker in this friendship.

"I know! We'll have some sort of signal! Like a distress signal! A secret signal so we can find each other in the forest! Can you imitate a sloth?" Nora asked, Ren sighing."Nora?

"Yes, Ren?" she asked.

"I don't think sloths make a lot of noise," he said after a moment, Nora too taking a moment to think.

"That's why it's perfect! No one will suspect we're working together!" she exclaimed, Ren smiling for a moment.

"Come on Nora, let's go," Ren said.

"Not _together _together..." Nora said with a giggle.

[-0-]

In the locker room they had been directed to the previous day to store their weapons and gear, Gwyn was at his assigned locker gathering his gear, namely Great Escape, his ammunition, and his explosives. Turning and preparing to head to the cliffs, he bumped into Yang and Ruby.

"Oh, hey guys!" he said with a smile and a wave, Yang and Ruby returning the gesture.

At that moment, Orion appeared on the other side of the room, as if by magic. "Fuckety fuck fuck fuck, gotta get my shit," he exclaimed while typing the combo to his locker.

"Looks like someone slept in a bit late," Yang said as she glanced over at Orion as he fumbled with the lock.

"Yeah I did a bit," Orion responded, feeling a bit less rushed having gotten the locker open. "I'm so glad I only have one piece of actual armor." He secured his one pauldron to his right shoulder and strapped on Duality of Man, but left his shotgun in the locker. He glanced at it, and for just a second he looked sad. "Not yet. I'm not ready just yet," he whispered to himself quietly, shutting the locker. "So," he said out loud, "what's up? You guys ready to go?"

"Just about," Gwyn said, placing his hands in his pockets.

"We're just grabbing our stuff," Yang said quickly.

"Yep!" Ruby said in agreement.

"You seem awfully chipper this morning!" Yang said, turning to her sister.

"Yep! No more awkward small talk or 'getting-to-know-you' stuff. Today, I get to let my sweetheart do the talking," she said, grabbing Crescent Rose from her locker.

"Well, remember, Ruby, you're not the only one going through initiation," Yang said, crossing her arms. "If you wanna grow up, you're gonna have to meet new people and learn to work together."

"You sound like Dad!" Ruby shouted in response. "Okay, first of all: What does meeting new people have to do with fighting? And secondly: I don't need people to help me grow up! I drink milk!"

"I could go for some malk right now…" Orion said absentmindedly.

"Milk, huh?" Gwyn asked smugly.

Yang glared at the two and rolled her eyes, turning back to her sister. "But what about when we form teams?"

"Um, I don't know, I... I'll just be on your team or something…" Ruby said meekly.

"Maybe you should try being on someone else's team?" Yang quietly suggested meekly, though Ruby wasn't having any of it.

"My dear sister Yang, are you implying that you do not wish to be on the same team as me?" Ruby said accusingly.

"Ooooooohh," Orion let out, feigning shock, a hand over his mouth.

"What? No! Of course I do! I just thought…" Yang said, trying to think of a proper response. "I don't know, maybe it would help you... break out of your shell!"

"What the-?!" Ruby said, almost offended. "I don't need to 'break out of my shell'! That's absolutely-"

"Ridiculous!" Jaune shouted, walking in the middle of the group. He was lost. So lost, in fact, that he was carrying a map, and still had no idea where he was. "There's no way I put my gear in locker 636 yesterday! I would've remembered having to count that high! Why does this have to happen today?"

Nearby, Weiss was talking to the redhead that glanced at Jaune the other day, the two getting their gear ready. "So, Pyrrha," Weiss said, naming this girl as 'Pyrrha', "have you given any thought to whose team you'd like to be on? I'm sure everyone must be eager to unite with such a strong, well-known individual such as yourself!"

"Yo hold up," Gwyn said, looking around the room. "Did someone say Pyrrha?"

"Hmm…" Pyrrha said, not having heard Gwyn's query. "I'm not quite sure. I was planning on letting the chips fall where they may."

"Well…" Weiss said in pseudo-thought, "I was thinking maybe we could be on a team together."

"Well, that sounds grand!" Pyrrha said in agreement, Weiss smiling in approval of her answer.

"Great!" she said cheerfully, turning around and grinning evilly.

'_This will be perfect! The smartest girl in class combined with the strongest girl in class! Together we will be unstoppable! I can see it now! We'll be popular! We'll be celebrities! We'll get perfect grades! Nothing can come between us now!' _she thought, though her plans of school domination were sidetracked when they were interrupted by our favorite white-haired idiot.

"Well I'll be damned," Gwyn said, stepping between the two girls, "it really is Pyrrha!"

"Gwyn!" Pyrrha shouted in surprise. "You're attending Beacon too?"

"Um, excuse me!" Weiss shouted, getting the attention of the two. "Who do you think you are? Pyrrha is among the most elite fighters to have ever graced this school, you have no right to butt into her conversations like that!"

"He's the guy who didn't wanna sleep last night," Orion called as he too walked over.

"Oh, don't worry about him," Pyrrha said in an attempt to calm Weiss. "Gwyn and I actually go way back. We've competed at many of the same tournaments!"

"I'll assume that didn't go very well for him," Weiss said smugly, though Pyrrha shook her head.

"Goodness, no!" she said quickly. "Gwyn is very accomplished in the field. He has actually won a few of those very same tournaments!"

"A few?" Gwyn asked, chuckling for a moment. "Pyrrha, our record is dead even right now. You're not telling me you've forgotten, are you?"

"I'm sorry what?" Weiss asked meekly. She thought Gwyn was just some mook who got in by the headmaster's good graces, not someone on par with Pyrrha of all people.

"Gwyn and I have a little bit of a rivalry between us," Pyrrha explained. "A friendly one though. We always try to one up each other at tournaments, but the moment one of us gets a lead, the other comes right back with a win. We've been like this for years!"

"I'm gonna pull ahead and stay ahead though!" Gwyn shouted. "We've been at a stalemate for way too long!"

Orion was now standing next to Gwyn, casually attempting to cross his arms without triggering Duality of Man's alternate form and eventually giving up. "So, when's the next chance to move ahead gonna be?" he asked.

"Oh, jeez, lemme think," Gwyn said, thinking for a moment. "With the school year starting up, we likely won't be able to register at anything that isn't based in Vale, and even that's a stretch. Honestly, the Vytal Festival might be the closest thing we've got."

"That sounds about right," Pyrrha said in agreement. "Until then, we should try to catch up! It's been ages since we've been able to just enjoy our time together. Usually we just end up fighting each other in the finals with a little pre-fight banter."

"Sounds great!" Gwyn replied happily, Jaune sliding onto the scene.

"You know what else is great? Me. Jaune Arc. Nice to meet you," he said, talking mostly to Weiss, a fact that Orion really did not appreciate.

"You again?" she asked, clearly upset, a fact that Orion definitely did appreciate.

"Nice to meet you, Jaune!" Pyrrha said, quickly waving to Jaune, though he paid her no mind.

"Yeah, yeah," he said, almost pushing her out of the way. "So, Weiss, couldn't help but overhear your fondness of me the other day."

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me!" she shouted, facepalming. She thought he wouldn't hear. Now she was really hoping Gwyn and Orion hadn't heard, but they gave no indication that they did.

"Don't worry!" he said, trying to calm her. "No need to be embarrassed! So, been hearing rumors about teams! I was thinking you and me would make a good one! What do you say?"

"Actually," Pyrrha said, tapping Jaune on the shoulder, "I think the teams are comprised of four students each, so-"

"You don't say," he said, turning fully to face her. "Well, hot stuff, play your cards right and maybe you could join up with the winning team."

"Jaune, is it?" Weiss asked, Jaune nodding. "Do you have any idea who you're talking to?"

"Not in the slightest, snow angel," Jaune conceded, leaning down and gazing into Weiss' eyes.

"This is Pyrrha," Weiss said, Pyrrha waving.

"Hello again!" she said.

"Pyrrha graduated top of her class at Sanctum!" Weiss explained.

"Never heard of it," Jaune said, shrugging.

"She's won the Mistral Region Tournaments four years in a row!" Weiss added, almost offended. "A new record!"

"The what?" Jaune asked.

"She got second at the CG Enterprises sponsorship tourney!" she shouted. "There were over a hundred entrants, and you had to win a qualifier to enter!"

"I got first at that one," Gwyn added, Pyrrha nodding.

"Still don't know what it is," Jaune said, shaking his head, Weiss having finally had it.

"She's on the front of every Pumpkin Pete's Marshmallow Flakes box!" she shouted, waving her arms wildly as she did. This guy was really getting on her nerves, that was for sure...

"That's you?!" Jaune shouted, gasping. "But they only do that for star athletes and cartoon characters!"

"There was a rather large tournament for it," Pyrrha explained, Gwyn nodding, "and that was my tournament to even things back up between Gwyn and me. He still put up an amazing fight…"

"We both were almost dead on both ammo and aura, it was an amazing performance on both ends," Gwyn clarified.

"I won and got the cameo, but sadly, the cereal isn't very good for you," Pyrrha lamented.

"So, after hearing all of this, do you really think you're in a position to ask her to be on your team?" Weiss asked, Jaune slumping over in defeat.

"I guess not…" he said with a sigh. "Sorry…"

"Actually, Jaune, I think you'd make a great leader!" Pyrrha added quickly, Gwyn and Orion hiding a quiet laugh.

"D'oh, stop it!" Jaune said, shyly waving off her praise.

"Seriously, please stop it," Weiss said, still annoyed by Jaune. "This kind of behavior should not be encouraged!"

"Sounds like Pyrrha's on board for Team Jaune. Spots are filling up quick!" Jaune said, secretly surprised that his tactics were working. "Now, I'm not supposed to do this, but maybe I could pull some strings, find a place for you. What do you say?"

As he spoke, he inched closer and closer to Weiss, making her a bit too uncomfortable as he did.

"All right, that's a bit too close!" she shouted, looking to Pyrrha in her time of need. "Pyrrha, a little help, please?!"

Jaune turned just in time to see Pyrrha's weapon, Miló, being thrown at him, pinning him to the wall by his hoodie.

"I'm sorry!" Pyrrha shouted after him, seeing that he'd lodged in between two more students grabbing their equipment, startling them both.

"Yooo, you good dude?" asked the boy to his left. To be honest, he was rather bland. His hair was a simple brown, and was rather long. It was swept to the left, partially blocking his left eye. On the right side, it was cut extremely short unlike the rest, and made his ear and its many piercings more prominent. His eyes were of a similar brown to his hair as well. In terms of clothes, again, he seemed rather bland. He wore a simple pair of gray cargo pants held up by a standard brown belt tucked into brown steel-toed boots that came up to just below his knees, and on his torso he wore an odd half-shirt that left his abs uncovered while covering his chest, the tight fabric and revealing design helping highlight the fact that he was very well built. Not Orion built, mind you, but closer than most. Over that he wore a large gray coat left open in the front with a large militaristic collar and the sleeves rolled up above his elbows, held in place by leather straps, nothing too special. On his hands he wore simple black fingerless gloves that went up to just below his elbow. Overall, he had a rather simple outfit, through and through. His weapon, however, didn't suffer his boring fate, being a sort of voulge with two large silver blades and a short handle, the entire apparatus having been folded in half for storage. This was the teen's weapon of choice, the Double-Bladed Voulge Bow he called Keystone. "You didn't break anything, did you?"

"He broke whoever's locker that was, that much is for sure…" the girl to Jaune's right said. She was definitely shorter than the teen to Jaune's left, and despite wearing heels she didn't measure up to either Jaune or him. This girl was, to be honest, completely stunning; her features were subtle yet elegant, her eyes were both piercing yet soft, her lips were full, and her hair was soft and smooth. Her outfit too was rather elegant, consisting of thigh-high heeled boots with laces on the inseam area with metal plating on her knees held on by simple leather straps, a purple blouse/skirt combo that ended midway down her thighs and just below her elbows with a seam running down the left side with more laces on it and a split below the laces held closed by a large purple bow, and a few armor plates on her chest and upper arms held on by a series of leather straps with a collar and a corset in the back. She also had a few small accessories, namely a black hairband, a black choker with a small silver badge that seemed to be her emblem, gloves with small armor plates on the backs of her hands, and a sort of double belt connected on one side over her blouse. Her aforementioned hair was silvery in color, parted to the left, and was cut in a clean bob that ended just above her shoulders, and had a few purple streaks in her bangs and on the left side that framed her face. This color seemed to be chosen to match her eyes, which was a similar shade of purple, a purple also present on her nails. Overall, her clothes seemed to be focused on appearance first with defense as a secondary thought.

Grabbing her weapon, a collapsed purple sword with silver edges and a black handle, she strapped it to her belt and sighed. This was her signature weapon, the Automatic Heated Gun Blade known as Violet Grace.

"I get the feeling that this initiation is going to be tedious…" she said, crossing her arms and pouting, a single canine tooth showing itself off prominently. "I just hope whatever it is doesn't take too long, I want to get back and take a nice, hot shower."

"Pffft, whatever," the other boy said, waving off her concerns. "We're getting teams today! At least I think we are… Regardless, it's our first real day here, let's savor it!"

"Ohhh, something savory sounds good right about now…" the girl said, planning out her lunch.

"Teams, huh?" Jaune asked, looking at the girl. "Say, how about you get me down from here and we can talk about your chances of getting onto Team Jaune, Miss…?"

"Tabitha," the girl said, naming herself. "And I don't think so. I get the feeling you were pinned to the wall for a reason, I just don't know what it is. So I'll leave it to whoever put you there to get you down."

'_Damn that was harsh,'_ Orion thought, a bit surprised at the young woman's response.

"I'd do it for you man, but I'm just not feeling it right now," the other teen said, shrugging. "I just wanna get to it with initiation and get my room."

"Hey man, I'm Jaune," Jaune said, introducing himself. "What's your name?"

"'Sup man, I'm Keith," he said, identifying himself as Keith.

"_Would all first-year students please report to Beacon Cliff for initiation?" _said Glynda's voice from over the speaker system. "_Again, all first-year students report to Beacon Cliff immediately."_

Those in the locker room began heading out, firstly Weiss, and she was then followed by Pyrrha, Gwyn, and Orion, the trio chatting on their way out. Pyrrha grabbed her weapon and freed Jaune as she passed him, dropping him onto the floor.

"It was nice meeting you!" she said as he stood back up, shaking his head in defeat.

"Likewise…" he said, sounding defeated.

"Having some trouble there, lady-killer?" Yang asked as she and Ruby approached him.

"I don't understand," Jaune admitted, rubbing his head. "My dad said all women look for is confidence! Where did I go wrong?"

"'Snow Angel' probably wasn't the best start," Yang explained, Jaune sighing and nodding in agreement.

"Come on, Jaune, let's go," Ruby said, offering him a reassuring pat on the shoulder.

Tabitha and Keith merely shrugged to each other, chatting with one another as they too made their way to the cliffs.

[-0-]

As time passed, all of the new first years made it to the cliffs like they were supposed to, finding Professor Goodwitch, Headmaster Ozpin, and a few panels with the Beacon Academy coat of arms emblazoned on them, which they were instructed to stand on. Odd, but okay, that's easy enough. The view itself was breathtaking though, the sun still sat rather low on the horizon, bathing the forest below in the beautiful light of dawn.

"For years, you have trained to become warriors, and today, your abilities will be evaluated in the Emerald Forest," Ozpin said, naming the expanse of woodland beneath them. Glynda took a step forward with her scroll in hand, pulling up a few charts and such regarding the students.

"Now, I'm sure many of you have heard rumors about the assignment of 'teams'. Well, allow us to put an end to your confusion. Each of you will be given teammates... today," she revealed, a few students muttering to each other at this revelation.

"What? Ohhh…" Ruby said in worry.

"Oh hell yeah," Orion and Gwyn said in tandem, each looking at each other and smirking, a fist bump being shared between the two.

"These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time here at Beacon" Ozpin said, explaining further. "So it is in your best interest to be paired with someone with whom you can work well."

Ruby simply groaned. There weren't very many people that fit that role...

"That being said," Ozpin said, swishing his mug around for a moment, "the first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years."

"Ope aight," Orion stated in surprise, not expecting the team assignments to be so random.

Ruby wasn't as understanding as Orion regarding the situation, however, a loud "Whaaaat?!" escaping her lips.

"See?" Nora said, leaning over to Ren beside her. "I told you-!"

"After you've partnered up, make your way to the northern end of the forest. You will meet opposition along the way. Do not hesitate to destroy everything in your path…" Ozpin said, pausing for a moment, "or you will die."

"Let's gooo," Gwyn said, Orion too seemingly happy about this order.

"Yessssss," Orion let out quietly, sounding a bit too much like a purple t-rex from the 90's.

Jaune merely gulped nervously, a forced laugh coming from him.

"You will be monitored and graded through the duration of your initiation, but our instructors will not intervene. You will find an abandoned temple at the end of the path containing several relics. Each pair must choose one and return to the top of the cliff. We will regard that item, as well as your standing, and grade you appropriately. Are there any questions?" he asked, Jaune's hand going up almost instantly.

"Yeah, um, sir?" Jaune asked, and though Ozpin looked at him for a moment, he ignored him.

"Good!" Ozpin said, looking at the competent students. "Now, take your positions."

Down the line, the students each prepared themselves. Nora crouched low and readied herself, Ren pulled from his sleeves a pair of bladed green pistols, Yang readied her gauntlets, Ruby prepared herself, Orion shrugged his shoulders, activated his arm cannon, and bent his knees, Gwyn pulled down his goggles and pulled out his scroll with the intent to record, Keith pulled out his weapon and expanded it, and Tabitha sighed and made sure her hairband was tight enough to keep her hair out of her eyes. Overall, most all of the students were more than ready to begin their initiation.

All except for Jaune, who was still raising his hand fruitlessly.

"Uh, sir? I've got, um... a question," he asked, Ozpin sighing and looking him in the eye. "So, this landing... strategy thing... Uh, wha-what is it? You're, like, dropping us off or something?"

Clearly, he was missing the fact that the panels they stood on were actually catapults, the students further down being launched into the woods.

"No. You will be falling," Ozpin said, getting right to the point.

"Oh, uh, I see... So, like, did you hand out parachutes for us?" Jaune asked, Ozpin and Glynda turning to each other and shaking their heads.

"No," Ozpin said once more. "You will be using your own 'landing strategy'."

"Uh-huh... Yeah," Jaune said dejectedly, still not seeing the other students being flung into the woods. The next student to go was Yang, who winked to her sister as she put on a pair of aviators before being launched into the forest, Ruby joining her a moment later. Orion was next, screaming, "YEEET," Gwyn rolling his eyes and following after, a quiet 'wahoo' coming from him as he was launched.

"So," Jaune asked cautiously, not realizing until it was too late that it was his turn, "what exactly is a landing strategYYY!..."

Ozpin merely sipped his drink as he watched the new class flying through the air, most doing so rather elegantly…

...Aside from Jaune, who ragdolled through the air, completely out of control.

"I do love initiation," Ozpin said, sipping once more from his mug.

[-0-]

In the air above the forest, a lone black bird flew, not a care in the world. Was it looking for food? Maybe it was heading back to its nest? Was it simply enjoying a leisurely flight near its home, perhaps? As much as we'd like to answer these questions, they won't matter for long, as seconds later Ruby smashed into the bird, taking it out of the sky.

"Birdie, no!" she shouted, but alas, there was nothing she could do for Birdie. She knew that she had to avenge Birdie, and pulled out Crescent Rose, letting loose a few rounds such to slow her descent, activating her scythe in order to catch and branch and land safely.

Plenty of other students had some rather interesting landing strategies as well, so let's take a look at those, shall we?

First up was Weiss. Her sword at the ready, she waved it in front of her and created a sort of glyph with a snowflake pattern, landing on it and hopping down into the woods.

Ren was next. For a moment, he watched as Nora flew by at an even greater speed before preparing his guns, lodging the blades into a tree and carving a spiral into it as he came down, hitting the ground and dusting himself off. Looking up, his attention was drawn to the sound of explosions overhead, the source of them being none other than…

"Woohoooooo!"

Yang. It's Yang.

Using the recoil of her gauntlets to keep her airborne, she flew recklessly through the air until she could find a better landing spot, laughing all the way. Eventually finding the ideal location, she crashed through the leaves of a tree before kicking off the trunks of two more, rolling on the ground in order to avoid hurting herself. A quiet 'Nailed it' escaped her lips as she did before she ran off into the fray.

Pyrrha too had a rather reckless approach, simply bearing her shield in front of herself as she plowed through a few trees, landing on the branch of one and rolling to a stop, her weapon in rifle mode ready to go. Scanning the forest, she saw Jaune still failing miserably to find a safe way to land, and as such swapped her weapon to javelin form, lined up the shot, and used the recoil to hurl her weapon at him, a loud 'thunk' resounding throughout the forest. This was followed shortly thereafter by a quick 'Thank you' from Jaune, Pyrrha responding with her signature "I'm sorry!"

"Wooooooo," Orion hollered as he shot through the air, and noticing he was getting close to the ground, he aimed his arm cannon down and forward, and fired, sending a bright blue beam of energy into the ground, slowing him down right up until his feet touched down, then he turned and looked back, and noticed he made a crater. "Heh, looks like my cannon is stronger than your nose, Ruby."

This of course led to a tiny sneeze erupting from the younger girl, though this time without the explosion. Orion was technically correct; his cannon was stronger than her nose.

Next up was Gwyn. Though he was getting pretty close to the ground, he didn't seem to care all that much, simply raising Great Escape and firing at a tree. This led to a branch breaking off, obviously leading to Gwyn trading out with it, now standing in a tree overlooking the forest. Sliding his goggles back up to his forehead, he took a deep breath and turned to his scroll. "Let's get this bread, boys," he said, smiling and throwing up his signature hand sign.

Finally was Keith, who drew his weapon in preparation for his landing, but was caught off guard when Tabitha latched onto him.

"Tabitha?!" he shouted, startled.

"I don't wanna land on my own. You do it," she commanded, Keith shrugging in response.

"Okay, I guess," he said, spinning Keystone as fast as he could, the blades acting as a helicopter rotor and setting the two down safely, Tabitha releasing Keith and looking around with her weapon at the ready.

"Oh, I guess we're partners by the way," she said, turning to Keith once she decided the coast was clear. "I'm Tabitha Ostrum."

"Keith Stone!" Keith responded, smiling. "Now that we've got formal introductions out of the way, you ready to rock and roll?"

"Oh yeah," Tabitha said, a small smile on her face.

Ruby's day wasn't going as smoothly as theirs, however, as she had an actual goal in her mind.

'_Gotta find Yang,' _she thought, sprinting through the woods, '_gotta find Yang, gotta find Yang, gotta find…'_

"Yang! Yaaaang!" she shouted, the stress of the situation causing her to envision herself being partnered with people that weren't her beloved sister. "Oh, this is bad, this is really bad... What if I can't find her? What if someone finds her first? Well, there's always Jaune. He's nice. He's funny! ...I don't think he's very good in a fight, though. Ooh! What about Blake?! So mysterious, so calm... Plus she likes books! Then again, I'm not sure I'd be able to hold a conversation with her… Gwyn and Orion are cool, but they seem more like they'd like to be on a team with each other... Ugh! Okay... Who else do I know in this school? There's Yang, Jaune, Blake, Gwyn, Orion, aaaand…"

Her monologue was cut short as she burst into a clearing, a certain Schnee heiress standing there and turning to see what was barreling through the woods. The two just… stood there in complete silence for a moment before Weiss turned heel and walked away.

"Wait!" Ruby shouted, following after her for a moment. "Where are you going?! We're supposed to be teammates…"

Saddened by the loss of her supposed 'teammate', Ruby looked at the ground in sorrow and kicked the ground. Weiss simply continued on her way, pushing branches out of the way until she reached a clearing, sighing in relief when she heard a voice above her. However, it… it was Jaune.

"Come on, come on! Stupid...!" he muttered as he tried to unlodge the javelin holding him in place, having not noticed the heiress below him until he gave up and looked around. Offering a nervous wave, he groaned and Weiss turned and left, heading right back the way she came.

"By no means does this make us friends," Weiss said as she grabbed Ruby by the hood, dragging her with her as she continued into the forest.

"You came back!" Ruby cheered, clearly happy.

"Wait!" Jaune shouted, waving his arms at the two as they left. "Come back! Who's going to get me down from here?!"

"Jaune?" called a voice from below, looking down to see Pyrrha standing there. "Do you... have any spots left on your team?"

"Very funny…" he said quietly, though he looked down and smiled, Pyrrha returning the smile. This was followed, however, by Gwyn leaping forth from a nearby tree, shouting 'Stop staring down her armor' as he sprinted through the clearing.

"Wha-" Jaune started, a little shocked. "N-no! I'm not, I swear!"

Naturally, he looked straight up, avoiding any further implications from other students. Pyrrha couldn't help but laugh, as she knew he wasn't. Gwyn was simply a bit of a trickster. She only thought for a split second that he was right, but waved off the thought after seeing Jaune's reaction.

Weiss continued to drag Ruby away, though Ruby was confused as to why she was going so fast. After a little bit she released her, Ruby quickly standing up and jogging to catch up. "What's the hurry?" she asked, Weiss stopping for a moment and turning to her.

"I will not let my mission be delayed because you're too slow! I swear, if I get a bad grade because of your-" she said, Ruby suddenly appearing next to her with a smile on her face. "What the...?"

"I'm not slow, see?" she said, still smiling. "You don't have to worry about me!"

"When did…?" Weiss asked, looking back to where Ruby was standing mere moments ago. How did she do that?

"Weiss, just because I don't exactly know how to deal with people doesn't mean I don't know how to deal with monsters!" Ruby said, putting an arm around Weiss and using the other to set the scene. "You're about to see a whole different side of me today, Weiss, and after it's all over, you're going to be like, "Wow! That Ruby girl is really, really cool… and I wanna be her friend!" she added rather quietly before disappearing in a shower of rose petals, Weiss being forced to swat them out of her face.

She would have berated Ruby, but she heard rustling from the bushes nearby.

"You may be fast, but you still excel at wasting time!" Weiss shouted, hoping for a response but hearing nothing more than more rustling. "Ruby?" she asked, more quietly than before. As she walked, she went deeper and deeper into the forest, light becoming scarcer and scarcer. "Ruby...?"

Unbeknownst to her, a pair of glowing red eyes were now trained on her, accompanied by a deep growl. This tipped Weiss off the entity's presence, the heiress turning slowly to see a massive Grimm, particularly a Beowolf, behind her that slowly approached her.

"Ruby!" Weiss shouted. This was a fight she wouldn't mind a little help with…

[-0-]

Others weren't having as rough a time as Weiss. One of such individuals was Yang, who was enjoying a nice leisurely stroll through the forest, not a care in the world. Well, that's not entirely true. She did have one care.

"Helloooooooo?"

She was completely alone, and that wasn't her style.

"Is anyone out there? Helloooo?" she asked out loud, waving her arms in the air in case someone was able to see her. "I'm getting bored here!"

Though Yang was unaware of the shadows moving around her, she wasn't deaf to the sound of the bushes rustling behind her. "Is someone there?" she asked as she approached the bushes. "Ruby, is that you?"

Now, Yang truly expected to find her sister in the bush for some odd reason. In this bush, however, was not Ruby, as Ruby couldn't growl like whatever was in the bush.

"Nope!" she shouted, rolling out of the way as a large Grimm known as an Usra rose from the bush and charged at her. A smile on her face since she knew it was punchin' time, she activated her gauntlets and faced the beast. The staredown would have continued, however another beast came from the bushes behind her and swiped at her, the first one she had seen charging her as well. She laughed and knocked them both away, as Yang's strength was nothing to scoff at. One recovered more quickly than the other and charged her again, though she ducked its attacks and went on the offensive, landing an impressive series of punches and kicks that launched it back.

"You guys wouldn't happen to have seen a girl in a red hood, would you?" she asked sarcastically, the only response being a hostile growl. "You could just say 'no'."

The one that growled at her stood up on its hind legs and full-on roared, stepping forward and swiping at her a few times, Yang easily dodging the sloppy swings.

"Geeeez," she said with a laugh, "you two couldn't hit the broad side of a ba…"

Before she could finish mocking her opponents, she looked up to see a single strand of her hair float down to the ground, landing soundlessly to the forest floor.

"You…" Yang said quietly, closing her eyes for a moment. When she opened them, however, it was evident that her usually fuschia eyes had changed to a vicious red, confusing the two Ursai. "You monster!"

The moment she said this, she lit on fire for a moment before launching herself at the two beasts in front of her. Getting close to one, she unleashed a devastating combo on it, her punches now burning with intense flames, culminating in her launching it through a series of trees, lighting them ablaze as it crashed through them. The other charged at her, though it stopped dead in its tracks when she turned her burning gaze towards it.

"What! You want some, too?!" she shouted, a tree falling behind her. The Ursa grunted for a moment before rearing back to strike. Before it could, however, a quiet whirring sound came from behind it, the beast falling over with Blake standing behind it, her blade lodged in the creature's back.

Yang released a pent up breath and watched as Blake yanked her weapon from the beast's corpse, sheathing it on her back and smirking at Yang, whose eyes had returned to their usual color.

"I could've taken him," she said, waving it off.

[-0-]

While some were struggling and some were being met with hefty opposition, some teams had come up against little to no obstacles. One such team was the newly formed duo of Keith and Tabitha, the pair having used their weapons maybe once or twice between the two. This was, oddly enough, due to Tabitha.

"Some Semblance you've got there, huh?" Keith asked, thinking back to the limited encounters they'd had with Grimm and how his new partner just… incinerated them. "I mean, if we're gonna be partners, it'd be nice to know what we've got to work with, right?"

"I suppose you've got a point," Tabitha said, thinking for a moment. "So, what do you want to know about it? I'm an open book."

"Considering we're on a little bit of a time crunch," Keith said, pulling a bag of chips from one of the many pockets on his pants, "just give me the gist of what I need to know."

"Sounds good," Tabitha said, looking around to ensure they wouldn't be caught off guard by any more Grimm. Not that it would have mattered all that much considering what the two were capable of… "I call it Dead Flame. The short of it is that I can generate flames that are severely deadly to Grimm and incapacitate people. My range is a little limited though, I can only generate flames about ten feet away from myself."

"Pretty convenient that it's a different color than normal fire huh?" Keith asked, munching on another chip. "Like, it'd be pretty easy for me to avoid getting hit by it since it looks so different. I mean, when's the last time you say a purple campfire?"

"So I've heard," Tabitha said, nodding. "It doesn't burn people, so you'd be fine if it caught you. I'd have plenty of time to put it out before it slowed you down too much."

"Still pretty sweet though," Keith said, finishing his chips and putting the empty bag in a different pocket. "Oh! I should probably tell you about mine though, right?"

"That sounds like a pretty fair trade," Tabitha said, checking her nails. She thought she might have a cracked nail, and all of her files were with the rest of her things…

"Cool! Well, I call my Semblance Phantasm. I can phase through stuff as long as I've got aura. Plus I can turn other things intangible so long as I maintain physical contact, but only like one thing at a time," Keith explained, demonstrating by moving his arm through a few trees they passed by. "And I can do it for a while without stopping, but it takes more aura the longer I do it, so short bursts are better."

"Phantasm? I like that, it sounds mysterious," Tabitha said, a small smile on her face.

"Eh, I named it that because sometimes people forget that I'm there," Keith explained, shrugging. "I ghost people in real life, so why not name it after that, right?"

"I suppose," Tabitha said, turning around and seeing a Beowolf charging at the pair. Sighing, she grabbed a rock and lit it on fire, throwing it at the beast and nailing it right in the head, spreading her flames onto its body. The beast shrugged it off at first and continued running, though it began howling in pain, tumbling to a stop and clawing at its face in a vain attempt to ease the pain.

Tabitha huffed for a moment and looked over to Keith, gesturing towards the beast before wiping her forehead. Keith took the hint and readied his weapon, stepping forward and stabbing the beast, killing it.

"Shouldn't that one have been easy?" Keith asked, turning back around. "You killed a lot of them like that earlier."

"My Semblance takes a lot of aura," Tabitha explained, her breathing noticeably heavier. "I can't use it too much before I tire out. Also," she said, looking more closely at Keith, "you might wanna pull your shirt back down."

Keith looked down and saw that his undershirt had slid up when he went to finish the Grimm. "Oh, you're just jealous my tiddies are bigger than yours."

"What?" Tabitha asked, clearly angry, though Keith quickly held his hands up in defence. After he'd fixed his shirt, that is.

"I'm jokiiing," he droned, Tabitha simply crossing her arms. "I swear! Trust me, you don't need a big chest, you're already super hot as is."

Judging by Tabitha's response, turning and walking away, he'd made the situation worse than it already was.

"Oh come on, I'm sorry!" he said, following after her. He stayed a safe eleven feet back though, as he didn't want to be subjected to her Semblance. "Was the boob joke really that bad?"

Tabitha simply ignored him and kept walking, Keith groaning. "I'm sooorryyy."

Tabitha then held up her hand and stopped. "Stop," she said.

"No, I wanna make it up to you," Keith said, though Tabitha held her hand up again and began looking around.

"No, I mean stop talking," she said, drawing her weapon. Keith got what she meant and readied his own weapon, scanning the area with her.

"What's going on?" he asked, Tabitha turning to look deeper into the woods.

"There's something out there," she said, shifting her weapon to gun form. "Something big."

[-0-]

Meanwhile, Weiss had finally overcome the initial sense of shock that came from staring down a Grimm that came seemingly out of nowhere, having been forced into combat with what ended up being a large pack of Beowolves.

Parrying another blow from a Beowolf, she was pushed back into the center of the circle they'd made around her. This wasn't going as well as she'd hoped, that was for sure.

'_Remember your training, Weiss,' _she thought to herself. '_Head up, shoulders back, right foot forward- not that forward!- slow your breathing, wait for the right time to strike, and…' _She waited patiently as the chamber on her blade slowly locked into place, landing on fire dust. '_Now!'_

With her weapon ready, she picked out a Beowolf and launched forward at it, more than ready to light it ablaze. She would have too, but right at the last moment Ruby just kind of popped up, accompanied by a torrent of rose petals and a swing from her scythe. "Gotcha!" she shouted.

Weiss was certainly not planning on this happening, her eyes widening when she saw that Ruby was suddenly in front of her. Naturally, she was forced to redirect her attack somewhere else, screaming in shock as she aimed anywhere other than where Ruby stood, sending a line of fire through the forest and blowing up a tree, the fire spreading to other trees nearby. This led to her startling Ruby in response, the Beowolf clawing at her and knocking her back into Weiss.

"Hey, watch it!" Ruby shouted as she stood, Weiss looking at her angrily from the ground.

"Excuse me!" she shouted. "You attacked out of turn! I could have killed you!"

"You'll have to try a lot harder than that…" Ruby muttered, Weiss standing and turning to face the other way, ensuring they aren't caught off guard… again. They were caught off guard moments later, however, when a flaming tree branch fell near the two.

"We have to go!" Weiss shouted, grabbing Ruby's arm and running away, the Grimm growling as more and more of them came from the trees, unfazed by the flames. Weiss and Ruby just kept running, eventually coming to a stop when they were a safe distance away from the blaze.

"What was that?!" Ruby shouted, gesturing towards the flame. "That should've been easy!"

"Well perhaps if you had exercised even the slightest amount of caution with the placement of your strikes, I wouldn't have set the forest on fire!" Weiss retorted. She had a point, honestly...

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ruby asked, scoffing.

"I'm just surprised someone who talks so much would communicate so little during an encounter!" Weiss continued, Ruby simply crossing her arms.

"Well, I'm sorry you need my help to win a fight," Ruby said, turning away. "I'm just fine on my own!"

"Well, congratulations on being the strongest child to sneak your way into Beacon," Weiss said, pretending to be impressed by her diminutive teammate. "Bravo!"

Ruby, now properly angered, yelled in outrage as she drew Crescent Rose and cut down a tree, putting it back as she followed an equally angry Weiss, both completely unaware of the massive feather that landed on the tree behind them.

Back at the source of the flames, however, the pack of Beowolves now simply lingered, the area they stood upon now nothing more than charred dirt and ashes. The largest one howled and turned to where Ruby and Weiss had escaped from, a white-haired teen looking at them from the top of one of the few trees that hadn't caught fire.

"I wonder what caused this fire?" Gwyn wondered aloud, looking at the pack of Grimm below him. "Maybe a classmate? Meh, I dunno… I should probably kill off these things before someone else gets here. I'd shoot them, but I only have so many bullets, and with the fire I can't very well risk close-quarters combat without getting burnt… I guess it's bomb time then."

Reaching to one of the straps holding his weapon up, he grabbed a sort of white grenade and switched it to his dominant hand, priming it and holding the button down for a moment. As he held it, there was a sort of green light located near the top that continually got brighter and brighter. "That should be enough," Gwyn said as he released the button, the light now flashing. "Catch!"

With his shout, the Grimm below him noticed his presence and turned to face him, several growling in anger. Gwyn didn't really care, however, and just chucked the grenade at the largest Grimm, hitting it square in the chest, the explosive going off the moment it made contact, bathing the area in a blinding white light. The blast was impressive as well, the sound alone echoing around the whole forest and scaring off some birds. When the light faded, Gwyn looked down and smiled, as all of the Grimm that were standing there just moments ago were now simply not there, the blast having killed them all. "Sweet," he said, hopping down from the tree.

Nearby, Ruby and Weiss stopped dead in their tracks, having heard the explosion go off.

"What in the world?" Weiss asked no one in particular, Ruby turning to the direction the sound had come from.

"That sounded like a really high yield explosive…" she said, though she shook her head and kept walking. "Don't worry about it, the only ones out here are students and Grimm, so it sounds like one of our classmates just has some really strong weapons."

"I guess…" Weiss muttered, turning to continue on.

Plenty of others had heard as well, but the most notable were Glynda and Ozpin, the two having seen the blast from the cliff.

"You don't see that every day…" Glynda muttered, using her scroll to look more closely at Gwyn as he continued on his way through the forest.

"Whatever he used was clearly a very powerful weapon," Ozpin deduced, sipping from his mug. "Keep an eye on him, but keep whatever he did in mind. If at all possible, we need to ensure he doesn't do that on campus. The property damage alone could be costly, let alone the possible casualties…"

"I'll keep that in mind," Glynda said, typing a note on her scroll.

Orion also heard the massive explosion, and without hesitation, wordlessly sprinted in the direction he figured it had come from.

Jaune and Pyrrha heard as well, the two turning towards the sound of the blast.

"Did you hear that?" Jaune asked, Pyrrha turning back to face him and nodding.

"Explosives," she deduced. "It seems some of our comrades have encountered the enemy."

Jaune continued looking in the direction of the blast, not seeing that Pyrrha had pushed a branch out of the way, the very same branch snapping back and swatting him in the face, knocking him to the floor. Pyrrha noticed and turned back to face him, seeing him now sitting on the ground with a cut on his face.

"Jaune!" she shouted, helping him up. "I'm sorry!"

Jaune laughed for a moment, touching his face and discovering the aforementioned cut, wincing as he did. "It's okay. Just a scratch!"

"Why didn't you activate your aura?" Pyrrha asked, Jaune looking confused.

"Huh?" he asked.

"Your aura," she clarified.

"Gesundheit," Jaune said confidently.

Oh, Jaune.

"Jaune, do you…" she asked cautiously, trying to avoid coming off as rude, "know what aura is?"

Jaune turned away, hoping to hide his blatant lie. "Psch! Of course I do! Do you know what aura is?"

"Aura is the manifestation of our soul," she said, smiling. "It bears our burdens and shields our hearts. Have you ever felt you were being watched without knowing that someone was there?"

"Uh... yeah," Jaune conceded.

"With practice, our aura can be our shield. Everyone has it, even animals," she continued, the pair continuing to walk through the forest.

"What about monsters?" Jaune asked, though Pyrrha shook her head.

"No," she said. "The monsters we fight lack a soul. They are creatures of Grimm, the manifestation of anonymity. They are the darkness, and we are the light."

"Right, that's why we fight them!" Jaune said knowingly, though Pyrrha looked a little skeptical.

Oh, Jaune.

"It's not about why; it's about knowing," Pyrrha clarified. "Understanding dark and light helps us manifest our aura. Everyone has some of both. By baring your soul outward as a force, you can deflect harm. All of our tools and equipment are conduits for aura. You protect yourself and your soul when fighting."

"It's like a force field!" Jaune shouted after some deep thought.

"Yes, if you want to look at it that way," Pyrrha said. It did make some sense when you thought of it that way… "Now, close your eyes and concentrate."

"Uhh…" Jaune said as Pyrrha walked up to him, holding his head in her hands. "Okay."

Pyrrha smiled for a moment before closing her eyes, her entire form glowing a faint red, Jaune's now glowing white in response.

'_For it is in passing that we achieve immortality,' _Pyrrha thought. '_Through this, we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all, infinite in distance and unbound by death. I release your soul, and by my shoulder protect thee.'_

Releasing Jaune, she stumbled for a moment, seemingly tired.

"Pyrrha?" Jaune said in worry, though Pyrrha held a hand up to calm him.

"It's all right," she said, standing up straight. "I used my aura to unlock yours, but the energy that protects you now is your own. You have a lot of it."

She smiled as the cut on Jaune's face closed up and healed, Jaune watching as the glow faded around his hands.

"Wow…" Jaune said in awe.

Nearby, Ren was walking through the forest alone, though he stopped when he heard a strange animal call from the tree above him, looking up to see Nora hang out from the tree by her legs.

"I still don't think that's what a sloth sounds like," Ren said with a chuckle, Nora responding with a simple boop on the nose, accompanied by her making the very same sound.

[-0-]

Orion is now tearing through the woods as fast as he can, both excited and slightly worried.

'_That was a really loud boom,' _he thought as he barreled through the underbrush, '_I'm pretty sure no one died, but fuck would I not be surprised.'_

As he came to the edge of a treeline, he saw a scorched clearing that was still smoldering, and standing below one of the few unburnt trees in the area was none other than that dipshit he knew as Gwyn.

"Yo," Orion called out to get his attention, "What the absolute FUCK was that?!"

"Huh?" Gwyn said, turning to see Orion there. "Oh! Bomb."

"Oh, solid," Orion said, satisfied with the lack of an actual explanation. "I guess we're partners now boi."

"You right," Gwyn said, walking up to Orion and offering him a fist bump. "Let's get it."

Orion took a step forward to return the bump, but stopped dead in his tracks when he heard an ominous roar somewhere in the forest.

"The hell was that?" Gwyn asked, Orion shrugging.

"I don't know," Orion replied with a scary grin, "but let's go fuckin' kill it."

* * *

**A/N: So everyone, here is the 4th chapter, and we are getting into the fun fight shit. As for the roar and shit, sorry to leave a bit of a cliffhanger but fuckin suffer ;). The art is coming, just keep your pants on. Also on a side note, we got shit almost figured out for the first volume, but input is always appreciated and comments make me happy. Just don't be a cunt. Constructive criticism please. Oni is also in charge of the art and honestly is the only reason you are getting any, so show him some love by checking out his shit if you haven't already, he's got some good good. We'll shit out the next chapter as soon as we can, hopefully a bit faster but with this corona time who fuckin knows? Anything to add my boi? **

**Oni: As opposed to previous chapters, I do! Quite a bit at that. Today, I am going to grace you heathens with our characters' CNR qualifications, as those are an important part of the RWBY series. Let's go in order!**

**-Orion Rubidus: Orion's is pretty easy, as Rubidus means red. He's mostly based on the hunter Orion from Greek Mythology though. Does the chapter title 'The Red Hunter' make more sense now?**

**-Gwydion Elgin: Gwyn's is a tad more complex. Gwydion is an old Welsh name that means 'born of trees', and Elgin means 'royal/white' in Celtic. He's also based after his namesake, Gwydion, a trickster from Welsh folklore. 'Born of Trees, Royal and White' was obviously named after him.**

**-Keith Stone: Keith's name is probably the easiest of the bunch, Stone being indicative of stone gray. He do got some brown though, as stones can very easily be either color. His weapon name is actually a pun on his own name; Keith Stone/Keystone. Say it out loud, you'll hear it. Keith's character basis is actually Nicholas Flamel, the famous alchemist. Don't worry, it'll make sense eventually.**

**-Tabitha Ostrum: Tabitha's name is complex, but not as much as Gwyn's. Tabitha is a Hebrew name which means beauty, and Ostrum is Latin for purple. This also helped us name her weapon, Violet Grace! Tabitha is based on a character that you might not guess based on her size or her appearance, the Big Bad Wolf from the story of Little Red Riding Hood! Trust us, that will make sense too.**

**We like to think we've got a pretty solid group of dumbos here, so let us know what you think!**

**As always, OniHelix out!**

'**Till All Are One!**


	5. Chapter 5 To the Max

**A/N: SO, what's up my degenerates!? Sorry we took too long for another chapter, life does weird shit. We aren't dead, neither is the story, welcome to chapter 5. Let's get this show on the road, fucknuts. Anything to add, Oni?**

**Oni: Yep! Something important too!**

**Art is done!**

**Yes, basic design images of the 4 are done, and are thus labelled as so on my Twitter, which you will find at-**

**wildcardoni**

**Beyond that, there isn't too much to say, so let's get right into the meat and potatoes, the chapter.**

* * *

Chapter 5

To the Max

Ignoring the roar that echoed throughout the forest, Glynda and Ozpin continued to look through the footage of the students fighting their way through the forest. Flipping through a few different specific pairs, Glynda came to Nora and Ren, sighing and turning to Ozpin.

"The last few pairs have been formed, sir," she said, showing him the footage. "Nora Valkyrie and Lie Ren. Poor boy... I can't possibly imagine those two getting along. Still, he's probably better off than Miss Nikos," she said, flipping to the pair in question.

"Mmmm…" Ozpin replied, sipping from his mug.

"I don't care what his transcripts say," Glynda continued, watching as Jaune fumbled his way through the forest, "that Jaune fellow is not ready for this level of combat. I guess we'll find out soon enough. As for the final pair, that would be… Orion Rubidus and Gwydion Elgin."

"Oh dear," Ozpin said, rubbing his eyes with his free hand.

"Is something the matter with those two being on a team together?" Glynda asked, Ozpin glaring into the woods.

"Those two seem to be…" he said, thinking of a nice way to word his thoughts, "very interesting, to say the least."

"You could say that about plenty of our students this year," Glynda retorted, Ozpin taking a noticeably deeper swig of his drink.

"Not as interesting as those two," he said, though Glynda shrugged and looked back to her scroll.

"At their current pace, they should reach the temple within just a few minutes. Speaking of which, what did you use as relics this year?" she asked, turning to the now silent Ozpin. "Professor Ozpin?"

He sat there in silence, as despite his previous statement, there was one he found to be more interesting, that being the young Ruby Rose who he watched intently with his scroll. Ruby herself merely sat in the grass and played with a few stray leaves while Weiss struggled to find whatever direction she figured they should move next.

"It's definitely this way," Weiss said adamantly as she trudged forward, only to stop and turn the other way. "I mean... this way! It's definitely this way!" she said, though her confidence shattered the moment she stepped in front of Ruby. "Alright, it's official: We passed it."

"Weiss, why can't you just admit that you have no idea where we're going?" Ruby said with clear annoyance as she stood, dusting herself off.

"Because I know exactly where we're going! We're going... to…" Weiss said, fumbling with her own thoughts, "the forest temple!"

This was simply met by an exasperated sigh from Ruby, who definitely did not believe that they were heading to a forest temple.

"Oh, stop it! You don't know where we are, either!" Weiss shouted.

"Well," Ruby said with a shrug, "at least I'm not pretending like I know everything."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Weiss shouted once more, though slightly louder than last time.

"It means you're a big, stupid _jerk_ and I hate you!" Ruby retorted, delving into the deepest reaches of her impressive lexicon to find suitable adjectives to define her unfortunate companion.

"Just keep moving!" Weiss said with a sigh, turning and walking away with Ruby close behind her.

"Oh, just keep moving! Hurry up! Waaaah! Watch where you're going!" Ruby said in a poor impression of Weiss' voice. She really needed to get a few lessons from Orion or Gwyn if she wanted to improve on that... "Why are you so bossy?"

"I'm not bossy!" Weiss said, looking almost offended. "Don't say things like that!" she bossed, completely missing the point.

"Stop treating me like a kid!" Ruby shouted, hopefully getting her point across.

"Stop acting like a kid!" Weiss retorted, not getting Ruby's point once more.

"Well, stop acting like you're perfect!" Ruby said instead, hoping to make Weiss understand where she was coming from.

"I'm. Not. Perfect! Not yet…" Weiss said slyly, turning to walk away. "But I'm still leagues better than you."

"You don't even know me…" Ruby said dejectedly, following Weiss at a reasonable distance.

[-0-]

Meanwhile, Yang and Blake were having a considerably better time navigating through the woods, breaking out into a clearing that housed a sort of temple. The entire structure was open air, inside its confines being several altars with objects of deep ebony and vibrant gold resting upon each.

"Think this is it?" Yang asked as she turned to her partner. Blake merely looked back to her and shrugged, sliding down the hill they stood upon to examine it further, as they wouldn't get anywhere without checking it out at all. Entering the temple, they approached the altars, seeing that the objects that sat upon each were in fact...

"Chess pieces?" Blake asked aloud.

"Some of them are missing," Yang said as she approached one of the empty altars. "Looks like we weren't the first ones here."

"You would be very correct in that deduction, Yang," said a familiar voice, Yang and Blake turning to see Gwyn and Orion approaching them.

"Oh, hey Gwyn," Yang said, offering a small wave. "So, are these the relics we have to get?"

"Ye," Orion said, holding up the chess piece he and Gwyn had claimed, namely the golden bishop piece. "It looked like a hat and I like hats so I took it."

"...Riiight," Yang said, trying her best not to roll her eyes, though Orion could almost sense that she wanted to, moaning 'haaats' ominously. "So, you guys are all finished up then?"

"Well yes, but actually no," Orion said, pocketing the piece. "We heard a loud ass roar and we wanna make it shut up."

"Probably some huge Grimm," Gwyn clarified, gesturing to the general area. "Considering some of the people we're out here with, we don't really wanna count on them being able to take it down."

"Jaune?" Yang asked, Gwyn nodding in agreement.

"Jaune," Gwyn said, confirming Yang's admittedly accurate suspicions.

"That scraggly bitch," Orion muttered, just loud enough for everyone to still hear him.

"Well," Blake said, stepping up to the altars as Yang and Gwyn continued to chat, "I guess we should pick one."

"Hmmmm…" Yang hummed, turning towards the altar next to her, upon it being a golden knight piece. Picking it up, she held it out to Blake, the pair examining it more closely. "How about a cute little pony?"

"Sure," Blake responded, she and Yang both heading over to Gwyn and Orion, as a conversation now and then couldn't hurt.

"That wasn't too hard!" Yang said cheerfully, Blake nodding alongside her.

"Well, it's not like this place is very difficult to find," Blake said in agreement, Gwyn and Orion sharing in their nods.

[-0-]

Jaune and Pyrrha didn't seem to be in the same boat at all, standing at the mouth to a cave lit only by the small torch Jaune somehow managed to make, revealing drawings on the sides of men fighting gargantuan creatures.

"Think this is it?" Jaune asks, the two delving deeper within in case Jaune was correct, however Pyrrha wasn't so sure regarding that.

"I'm not sure this is it," Pyrrha muttered, Jaune sighing and lowering his head.

"Pyrrha, I made the torch. Could you at least humor me for, like, five more feet?" he asked before tripping over something he couldn't see, dropping his torch into a puddle and putting it out, plunging them into darkness.

"Do you... feel that?" Pyrrha asked cautiously, her hand moving instinctively to her weapon.

"Soul-crushing regret?" Jaune wondered, standing once more and dusting himself off. Aura may keep you safe, but it doesn't exactly keep you clean.

"No, it's... warm," she said, squinting in the hopes of seeing anything in the murky black of the cave, but to no avail. Unable to see anything, the two continued further into the cave, eventually coming across a large golden object seemingly suspended high into the air, though by what they couldn't tell. Jaune was ecstatic at this development though, and rushed forward to grab it, the glow highlighting his excited grin.

"That's the relic!" he cheered as he reached for it, though as he did it seemed to move out of the way on its own. "Hey! Bad... relic!" he chastised as it continued to evade his grasp, leaping forward to grab it one final time and succeeding, now hanging off the ground. "Gotcha!"

"Jaune...?" Pyrrha asked, worry heavy in her voice. Jaune turned to her and shrugged, then turning back and seeing red shapes roar to life, marking the 'relic' he had found to not be a relic, but in fact a massive Grimm known as a Deathstalker. This scared him enough to draw forth a decidedly feminine scream, reaching at least as far as the pair who walked by the cave opening, namely Keith and Tabitha.

"We aren't going in there," Tabitha said, gesturing towards the sound of Jaune's potent scream.

"That's fair," Keith replied, the two simply continuing on their way.

His scream echoed even further than that however, as even the few in the temple had heard it.

"Some girl's in trouble!" Yang shouted, looking to her partner. "Blake, did you hear that?"

"Heh, 'girl'," Orion chuckled, knowing full well it wasn't a girl.

"Yeah, you're probably right," Gwyn said, somehow knowing exactly what he meant once again.

"Ok hold on," Yang said, turning back to Gwyn, "how do you always know what Big Red over there says?"

"Wait why am I gum," Orion mumbled in confusion, as he wasn't exactly paying much attention at that point.

"You see," Gwyn said, ignoring the gigantic dumbass to his side, "this mans does nothing but shitpost constantly. I shitpost too, so I have a pretty good grasp on what he actually means. Translating is the least I can do."

"No but wait why am I gum," Orion mumbled again, Yang sighing and shaking her head.

"You're big and you're wearing red, not my fault there's gum with the same name," she explained, a hand on her hip.

"That, and I'll be damned if you don't smell like cinnamon," Gwyn added, turning to Orion.

"Look, that shit makes me silky as fuck," Orion retorted, glaring at Gwyn as he ran his hands through his hair. His shampoo was fantastic.

"Weren't we worried about a girl a few seconds ago?" Blake asked, everyone turning to her and remembering what they had heard.

"Heh, 'girl'," chuckled Orion once more, Gwyn punching him in the arm to try and keep him focussed. Blake, having had enough of those two, shook her head and turned away, something above them all catching her eye.

[-0-]

Back at the cave containing the source of Jaune's current misfortune, Pyrrha sprinted out of the cave mere moments before the Deathstalker barreled out behind her, Jaune still dangling helplessly from what was revealed to be the scorpion-like creature's stinger.

"Help! Whoa-ah-ah-ah-ah! Why?! Pyrrha! He-e-e-elp! Pyrrha, this is not the relic! It's not!" Jaune cried, clinging fervently to the stinger he decided just then wasn't the relic. "Do something!"

Pyrrha quickly went over her strategies in her head, though each one that she came up with required the same thing from Jaune. "Jaune! Whatever you do, don't let-" she shouted, though right as she did the creature whipped its tail forward and launched Jaune far into the distance. Completely unable to do anything, Pyrrha watched helplessly as Jaune ragdolled once more into the horizon. "...go," she mumbled, turning and smiling in embarrassment at the Grimm before her before running away, as Jaune was her top priority at the moment.

[-0-]

Something that only Blake had noticed ended up being Ruby and Weiss clinging to a large, feathery object that seemed to be moving incredibly fast, hence the wind rushing past them at blistering speeds.

"Ruby!" Weiss shouted, as she needed to in order to be heard clearly. "I told you this was a terrible idea!"

"We're fine!" Ruby shouted in return. "Stop worrying!"

"I am _so_ far beyond worrying!" Weiss retorted.

"In a good way?" Ruby asked, hopeful.

"In a bad way!" Weiss clarified. "In a very bad way!"

"Well, why don't we just _jump_?" Ruby suggested, Weiss having to take a moment to sort through what she just heard. Despite the few words that came out of Ruby's mouth, there was a lot to unpack there.

"What are you?" Weiss shouted. "_Insane?!"_

She waited for Ruby's inevitably sub-par response, which this time ended up being silence. Truth be told, Ruby had already abandoned ship, leaving Weiss up there alone.

"Oh, you insufferable little red-!" she shouted, having known full well that she would have done something like that sooner or later.

On the ground below them, Blake pointed a finger at the dark shape in the sky above them, the others looking up and trying to deduce what it was.

"Blake, did you hear that?" Yang said, hearing something approaching from the shape. "What should we do?"

"Is that…" Gwyn asked, lowering his goggles and bringing up their HUD to try and figure out what it was. Or rather, as he would find out in a moment, who.

"Heads uuuuuuuup!" Ruby shouted as she soared down to the group below. Right as she was about to hit the ground though, Jaune came from out of nowhere, still screaming like a girl as he collided with the cloaked sniper, knocking her off course and towards a tree off to the side.

"Ugh, fine," Gwyn said, nudging Orion. Orion took the hint and held his arms out, Gwyn hopping into them before trading out with Ruby and Jaune, he himself landing against the tree and leaping back off safely. As for Ruby and Jaune, Ruby landed safely in Orion's arms whilst Jaune continued flailing caused him to land behind Orion, though he didn't notice until he heard the blonde groan behind him.

"There were two of them?" Orion asked, turning to look at Jaune.

"Whew, nice save, guys!" Ruby cheered.

"Hey Ruby," Orion said in greeting, turning back towards Jaune. "There were two?"

"Eh-hem!" Jaune said, rising from the ground and dusting himself off indignantly. "Those arms seem to be big enough for two, sir!"

"You are definitely right," Orion said, setting down Ruby.

"And…?" Jaune asked, trying to get more out of him.

"And what?" Orion replied, turning to see Gwyn heading back over.

"Did your sister just fall from the sky?" Blake asked, turning to Yang beside her. "And did Gwyn just trade places with them?"

She heard him shout 'Semblance' off to the side, but she was more focussed on Yang at the moment.

"I…" Yang said, only to be cut off by load crashing and grunting noises ahead of her, moments later revealing an Ursa bursting forth from the brush. That didn't last very long though, as a pink blast went off on its back, grounding in and causing its energetic rider to plop onto the ground in front of it.

"YEEEE-HAAAAW!" Nora shouted, getting up triumphantly from her Grimm rodeo, only to turn around and see that it wasn't moving anymore. "Awwww... It's broken," she said, hopping over to the beast to examine it as Ren up next to her, breathing hard.

"Nora! Please…" he said, struggling for a moment longer to catch his breath. "Don't ever do that again."

Looking up, he saw that Nora had disappeared once more, looking around frantically to see her in the temple examining the golden rook piece. "Oooohh…" she said, grabbing it suddenly and parading around with it chanting 'I'm queen of the castle! I'm queen of the castle!'

"_Nora!" _Ren shouted, getting his teammate's attention.

"Coming, Ren!" Nora cheered with a salute, attempting to hide the chess piece behind her for some reason before skipping over.

"Did that girl just ride in on an Ursa?" Blake asked, now pointing at Nora as she skipped past her and Yang.

"I…" Yang muttered, only to be startled as Keith unknowingly snuck up behind her, saying 'Yup' right in her ear.

"When did you get here?" Blake asked, Keith looking at her as though he were offended. "We've been here for like… the past five minutes."

"We?" Ruby asked, only to turn and see Tabitha over by the chess pieces, the silver haired girl looking up and waving before grabbing a golden bishop piece. "How come no one noticed you?"

"His Semblance just does that, I guess," Tabitha said as she approached the growing group.

"How does his Semblance do that?" Blake asked, Yang growing more and more distressed beside her.

"I…" Yang stammered, struggling to find words at this point. She was at a loss as to what was happening at this point, that much was for certain.

Before she was able to find what few words she was looking for, loud sounds came from her side, drawing everyone's attention to Pyrrha as she sprinted from the forest with the Deathstalker still hot on her tail.

"Jaune!" she shouted, noticing the blonde watching over her.

"Pyrrha!" he shouted in worried response, seeing how close it was getting to hitting her.

"Whoa!" Ruby shouted, looking at the size of the monster before stepping forward to give assistance.

"Ruby!" Jaune shouted, now worried about her too.

"Ruby!" Yang shouted, her sister missing the point and thinking she was calling to her for seemingly no reason.

"Yang!" she shouted, throwing her hands into the air as though to offer a hug.

"Nora!" Nora shouted, shoving between the two sisters so as not to be left out, the Deathstalker simply continuing to snap at Pyrrha.

"Did she just run all the way here with a Death Stalker on her tail?" Blake asked, Yang finally having hit her breaking point.

"_I can't take it anymore!" _she shouted, her hair roaring to life as her eyes began burning red. "_Can everyone just chill out for two seconds before something crazy happens again?!"_

With no one willing to anger her any further, they all waited exactly two seconds for her to cool off before Ruby and Blake looked back to the sky, Ruby tugging on her sister's sleeve.

"Umm... Yang?" she said quietly, pointing up above at where she had fallen from, the shape having lowered itself enough such that everyone could see that it was in fact a massive Grimm called a Nevermore.

"Ma'am that's a big ass bird," Orion said, looking at the Nevermore.

"How big do you think the drumsticks I could get outta that thing would be?" Keith asked, looking over to Tabitha.

"No clue," she said with a shrug. "I don't think it'd fit in anything I brought though, so don't get your hopes up."

"Yo Weiss is hanging from that thing's foot," Gwyn said, squinting at the white shape clung to one of its talons.

"How could you leave me?!" Weiss shouted, the hurt in her voice carrying it through the air to those below.

"I said 'jump'!" Ruby shouted, Blake looking more closely at Weiss.

"She's gonna fall," Blake deduced, noticing Weiss' failing grip.

"She'll be fine," Ruby said, waving it off.

"She's falling," Ren said, pointing at Weiss' form as she fell from the sky.

Jaune looked to her and grit his teeth in a sly smile, knowing this was his chance, running forward to try and catch her. Right as he got close to her estimated landing zone, however, he heard someone behind him saying 'mine' over and over, getting closer and closer.

"Mine!" Orion shouted, shoving Jaune out of the way and catching Weiss, the Schnee heiress looking surprised at her lack of death. "Mine," said Orion one more time, setting Weiss down.

"Um…" Weiss said, a little shook. "My thanks?"

"My pride…" Jaune groaned, laying face first in a pile of dirt.

"You'll get 'em next time, Casanova," Gwyn said jokingly as he nudged both Weiss and Orion, Weiss glaring at the e-celebrity. She still wasn't fond of him.

"Great! The gang's all here! Now we can die together!" Yang cheered as she watched Pyrrha continue to run from the Deathstalker, which hissed at its target, the Nevermore screeching above them. Almost as if in challenge, a cataclysmically loud roar echoed throughout the forest, Gwyn and Orion turning towards it and smirking.

"Think that was the same roar?" Gwyn asked, Orion shrugging.

"Don't care, I wanna kill it anyway," he said.

"Sounds like we have business elsewhere," Gwyn said, seeing Tabitha and Keith standing further back from the others, Keith waving. "You guys wanna come with?"

"Sure!" Keith cheered, turning to his partner behind him. "You down?"

"Ah, why not," replied Tabitha, readying her own weapon and loading a full clip to ensure she was prepared.

"Damn your gun is small," Orion said, looking at Violet Grace in Tabitha's hand.

"The cuts it makes aren't, however," she said, flipping it back to sword mode.

"Feisty," Gwyn said jokingly, Tabitha turning to him and smirking.

"Oh you have no idea," she said.

"Well, sounds like we're outta here," Orion said, hearing yet another roar in the distance, quieter yet closer than the other one. "I have something to beat the shit out of."

Gwyn couldn't help but laugh as he patted him on the shoulder, the group of four moving towards their perceived target. "We'll do it together, big guy."

"Ah," was all Orion said, the other three looking to him and chuckling before they disappeared into the thicket.

"Great!" Yang shouted. "Now we'll die alone! Or… Alone together!"

"Not if I can help it!" Ruby shouted, charging the Deathstalker with her scythe at the ready.

"Ruby, wait!" Yang shouted, but to no avail, as Ruby sprinted right past her and towards the Grimm, firing a few rounds in order to speed herself up as she charged the Deathstalker. Getting right into its face, she was more than ready to take a swing, but was batted away by the unimpressed monster's claw.

"D-Do-Don't worry!" she said, standing up shakily. "Totally fine!"

True to her word, she was back in the fray right away, shooting it a few times in the face. However, the armor it bore there was strong enough to easily fend off her bullets. This did the trick and got it off of Pyrrha's trail, as it now wanted nothing more than to skewer the young Miss Rose.

"Ruby!" Yang shouted, running forward to try and assist her sister with Ruby heading to her to do the same, but above them the Nevermore cawed and flapped its wings, loosing several feathers and pelting the ground below with them. One of these feathers pinned Ruby to the ground by her hood, keeping her away from her sister.

"Ruby, get out of there!" Yang commanded, Ruby trying in vain to free her hood from the gargantuan feather.

"I'm trying!" she cried, struggling against the feather as the Deathstalker closed in on her, its stinger raised to pierce her. It attempted to do just that, Yang watching helplessly as the stinger came down onto Ruby.

"Ruby!" she screamed, right as a white figure raced past towards her sister.

[-0-]

"So what exactly are we looking for?" Tabitha asked, looking around to make sure nothing was getting too close to them.

"No idea," Gwyn said with a shrug. "It's gotta be something big though, I doubt a roar that loud could have come from something small."

"If it ends up being small, I'll be pissed," Orion said, displeased with the thought of a small monster.

"Know what, that's fair," Tabitha replied, checking her nails.

"Hey, um, guys?" Keith said from a little ways back.

"Oh shit, Keith is here too," Orion said as he turned back towards Keith.

"Yes I am, and so is this," he said, pointing at a large divot that he was standing in.

"Let's see what we're working with h- holy shit," Gwyn said, looking at the divot Keith was standing in, seeing that it was in fact a massive footprint. "Oh that's a big ass footprint."

"How big we talkin' here?" Orion asked, turning to face the footprint fully.

"This whole boy fits in this thing," Gwyn said, pointing at Keith standing in the center of the footprint.

"Big enough for you?" Tabitha asked, turning to Orion beside her.

"Hmmm, yes," he said, doing another odd accent.

"Well, we've got tracks," Gwyn said, taking a look at the massive footprint.

"And someone who can track them," Tabitha said, examining the print. "It… looks like it was moving east. It sounds like it turned towards the other Grimm when it heard them call, so we may want to head east southeast to meet it halfway."

"Whoa, how do you know all that stuff?" Keith asked, looking over Tabitha's shoulder at the track. All he could tell is that it was big.

"Before I started studying to be a Huntress, my parents were teaching me to be a hunter like them," Tabitha said, standing back up and looking towards the woods. "I may not be an expert trapper or anything, but I was always pretty good at tracking."

"Aces," Orion said, noticing a flock of birds fleeing from the trees in the direction Tabitha was looking.

"Looks like you're still good at it," Gwyn said, having seen the same thing as Orion, sliding his goggles down and switching them to infrared to try and see what was out there. "Well that doesn't look right…"

"What's up?" Tabitha asked, Gwyn leaning forward a little to get a better look.

"Looks way too big for that print…" he said, fumbling with the settings on his goggles. "Things must be glitching out…"

"Let me see those," Tabitha said, Gwyn removing them and passing them to Tabitha, who only looked through them for a moment before passing them back. "Nope, they work fine."

"Oh, good," Gwyn said as he put them back on, realizing what that meant. "That means we should move then."

As if on queue, a massive reptilian Grimm covered in discarded weapons burst forth from the woods, trying to bite down on Orion. He didn't seem to give it much thought and slipped just out of the way, giving it a solid punch in the face that threw its head to the side, but otherwise didn't seem to do much damage. He and the beast looked at each other for a moment, Orion quietly whispering 'boo' at it before it roared right in his face.

"Move, shitlord!" Gwyn shouted as he leaped onto the beast's back and stabbed Great Escape into it, the Grimm roaring and turning violently, its tail nearly swatting Keith. Luckily, he was able to phase through it in time to avoid the telephone pole-sized appendage. Tabitha didn't have the same luxury and had to duck it, getting her weapon ready.

"What is this thing?" Keith shouted, having never seen a Grimm like it before.

"A Tyrannosaurus Maximus, or a T. Max for short," Tabitha said, taking a few cautious steps back. "And an old one at that, this thing is huge."

"Anything to look out for?!" Gwyn shouted from atop the raging T. Max. "My grip will only last so long!"

"It's skin is really tough!" Tabitha shouted back, ducking the tail once more as it came by. "The fact that you got your sword in there at all is pretty impressive!"

"Less talk, more kill!" Orion said, running up and shoulder checking the T. Max in one of its legs, knocking it away from Tabitha and Keith.

"Don't need to tell me twice!" Keith shouted in response, leaping back a bit and readying Keystone, flipping one of the blades around and revealing a bowstring, the blades segmenting along a flexible core down the spine of each blade. Pulling out an arrow, he nocked it and fired it at the T. Max, the arrow simply bouncing off of its hide. "Oh," he said, the beast turning to him and charging him.

"You're going _this_ way, big boy!" Gwyn yelled as he wrenched his sword to the side. He didn't increase the size of the wound by much, but it did the trick and turned the T. Max away from Keith. He accidentally turned it towards Orion, but though the Grimm scooped him up in its jaws, Orion was able to keep the teeth from coming down on him as it continued to run with him in its mouth.

Knowing full well that she wouldn't be able to keep up with the thing for long as it ran, she latched onto its tail as it came by, stabbing her blade into its tail to get a better grip. "Oh, hey," she said, being surprised that she managed to get it through its hide. Perhaps its hide wasn't as thick further away from its torso?

It took Keith a moment to figure out what was going on, but then it dawned on him; the T. Max and everyone fighting it had forgotten he was there. "Ah, heck," he said, running after the gargantuan prehistoric Grimm as it smashed trees down with its every step.

[-0-]

"You are _so_ childish!"

Opening her eyes and lowering her arms, Ruby looked up to see that hadn't in fact been skewered by the Deathstalker, its stinger instead being encased in a large block of ice. There stood another between Ruby and the Deathstalker, dressed entirely in white. Ruby knew her, of course.

"Weiss...?" she asked meekly, watching as Weiss freed her rapier from the ice.

"And dim-witted, and hyperactive, and don't even get me started on your fighting style. And I suppose I can be a bit... difficult... but if we're going to do this, we're going to have to do this together. So if you quit trying to show off, I'll be…" Weiss said, trying to find the right word, "nicer."

"I'm not trying to show off," Ruby explained, looking up to Weiss. "I want you to know I can do this."

"You're fine," Weiss said, almost caringly.

"Normal knees…" Ruby said, releasing a sigh of relief. Getting up, she took a closer look at the Deathstalker as it struggled to free itself from the ice, the Grimm thrashing on the other side of the frigid wall. "Whoa!"

As she said this, Yang ran up to her and gave her a big sisterly hug, one which Ruby happily accepted and returned.

"So happy you're okay!" Yang said, the two smiling at each other for a moment before looking up, the sound of the Nevermore drawing cawing bringing their attention back to it.

"Guys?" Jaune said, his pride seemingly having recovered. "That thing's circling back! What are we gonna do?"

"Look, there's no sense in dilly-dallying. Our objective is right in front of us," Weiss said, gesturing to the altars with the relics resting upon them.

"She's right. Our mission is to grab an artifact and make it back to the Cliffs," Ruby said in agreement, nodding to Weiss. "There's no point in fighting these things."

"Run and live - that's an idea I can get behind!" Jaune cheered shakily, having seen more than enough of the giant scorpion. He and Ruby both ran forward to grab their own relics, Ruby the golden knight piece and Jaune the golden rook piece, both smiling at each other before a new sound caught their attention, that being the cataclysmic roar of the T. Max came barging through the clearing. Orion was still in its mouth, trying to box with its tongue, Gwyn was still latched onto its back, steering the beast away from his fellow classmates, Tabitha was still clinging to its tail, trying her best to burn it, and Keith was still chasing after it.

"Oh, might want one of these," he said, grabbing a golden bishop on the way, jamming it in his pocket as he continued after the T. Max.

"Did I see a group of students come riding in on a giant dinosaur?" Blake asked, pointing at the T. Max as it smashed its way out of the clearing.

"Blake, we are not doing this again," Yang said, pushing Blake's hand down.

Unfortunately for the others who stayed in the clearing, the tremors caused by the Grimm's stomping caused the ice encasing the Deathstalker to begin to crack, beginning the beast's breakout.

"Time we left!" Ren shouted, Jaune nodding in worried agreement whilst Nora pouted.

"Right," Ruby said, turning to the others and waving for them to follow her. "Let's go!

Everyone followed without a second thought, aside from a smiling Yang. Blake turned to see her smile, confused.

"What is it?" she asked, noticing that she was watching Ruby ensure the path ahead was safe before continuing onwards, beckoning the others to follow.

"Nothing…" Yang said, moving to follow her sister. Realization hitting her, Blake smiled as well, following Ruby's lead along with the others.

[-0-]

"This thing sure has… some stamina!" Keith shouted as he continued to sprint after the behemoth, though his pace has noticeably slowed.

"You're telling me!" Tabitha shouted back, the creature's tail still waving around violently.

"I don't wanna hear shit from either of you!" Orion yelled, still trying to fend off the monster's tongue from within its gaping maw.

"I just hope this thing's blood doesn't clog up my barrel…" Gwyn muttered, a thought coming to him. "Oh right, gun, haha, oops."

Readying the firearm, he watched as the back edge slid back to free open the barrel, pulling the trigger and firing right into the meat of the poor dino's back. Needless to say, this garnered quite the reaction, the creature reacting understandably violently, thrashing even harder than before. This resulted both in Orion being spat out and Tabitha being thrown off of its tail. Gwyn managed to stay on, though he was having a noticeably harder time staying put due to the recoil of Great Escape loosening it enough to the point where it jostled within the open wound.

"Uh oh, looks like I'm coming down!" Gwyn shouted, feeling Great Escape slipping further and further out. "Alright, everyone back up! Orion, catch!"

"What's he talking about?" Tabitha asked as she stood, Orion chuckling and doing as he was requested.

"Just stay back and watch the fireworks," Orion said, widening his stance. Tabitha and Keith, not sure of anything else they could do at the moment, moved back a bit and watched. Gwyn, still on the T. Max, pulled one of his explosives from his harness and held the button down for a few seconds before releasing and chucking it to Orion.

"Hey, we're on your side!" Tabitha shouted, unaware of whatever the hell it was that Gwyn was planning.

"Yep!" Gwyn shouted before trading places with the bomb, Orion catching him right as the bomb went off it the same blinding flash of light as before.

Setting Gwyn down, Orion blinked a few times to regain his sight, nodding at the scale of the blast. "That shit was lit," he said, rubbing his eyes.

"How did you do that?" Tabitha asked, still struggling to regain her own sight.

"The bomb part or the trade places part?" Gwyn asked, turning to Tabitha. He'd had to foresight to lower his goggles to avoid blinding himself; after all, he'd been using the explosives for long enough to memorize their potency as flashbangs.

"Yes," Keith replied, wanting to know exactly what Gwyn was working with in case he needed him to do it again.

"Well, I've got a few custom-built explosives on me that I can charge with my aura, and my Semblance lets me trade places with stuff. Pretty basic," Gwyn said, waving it off and raising his goggles.

"It would be a lot cooler if that bomb worked though," Orion said, having finally gotten his sight back.

"What are you talking ab- oh shit the dinosaur isn't dead," Gwyn said, turning around and seeing the living, yet stunned, T. Max. "Well, Tabitha, looks like you were right about this thing's hide; it's tough as hell."

"And it's moving!" Orion shouted as the Grimm recollected itself and charged, heading right for Orion. Wasting no time, Orion swapped the left gauntlet of Duality of Man into cannon mode, using the recoil of the blast to power a hard elbow into the T. Max's lower jaw, throwing it to the side. "At least, it was."

"And it will again," Tabitha said, flipping Violet Grace into gun mode. "So we need to come up with a plan of attack."

"Oh I've got a plan," Orion said, prepping the blade on his right gauntlet. "Attack."

Without warning, he darted towards the T. Max and rammed his blade into its side, garnering another roar from the monstrosity.

"He sure is slap happy…" Keith mumbled, readying Keystone and taking a stab himself. Luckily, he had more blade to stab with, so he managed to get a bit deeper than Orion did. Not by much, though.

"We may be able to get through its skin, but it's got enough mass to keep our attacks from doing much real damage…" Tabitha deduced, shaking her head. "Even my fire isn't gonna do much here."

"That purple fire of yours?" Gwyn asked, swapping his clips around in Great Escape, the clip being marked by a sort of arrow shape. "Some kinda mix between fire and gravity dust?"

"Semblance," she clarified, keeping a close eye on the T. Max, as it had gotten back off the ground and was snapping relentlessly at Keith and Orion. "For now, all you need to know is that it's super deadly to Grimm."

"Gotcha," Gwyn replied, chambering a round and hopping into a nearby tree so as to get a better position to shoot from. "Heads up boys! I'm taking aim!" he called, Orion and Keith both giving a quick nod to Gwyn before going back on the offensive. Knowing he had the green light to proceed, he took aim and fired, the bullet piercing its hide but not coming out the other side, likely. "Damn, not even these will do it…"

"If you've got anything stronger, you'd better use that," Tabitha said, swinging her sword to the side as the blade started glowing purple. "That's my gameplan at least."

"Sounds like a solid gameplan to me…" Gwyn said, looking over at a large boulder near the clearing the T. Max had made. "Yo, Oreo! Let's rock this scaly boy! Give me a boost!"

Orion turned towards Gwyn and saw the boulder he was referring to, smiling evilly and nodding in agreement before appearing next to Gwyn, startling the absolute hell out of Tabitha.

"Oh great, you can teleport too?!" she shouted, falling onto her butt due to Orion's sudden appearance.

"Nope, we'll talk once the big lizard sucks death though," Orion said before grabbing Gwyn's hand and chucking him into the air above the T. Max, which was focussing on Keith alone at this point.

He was not fond of that.

"Look, can someone lend me a hand here?!" he shouted, phasing through the Grimm's gigantic jaws as they slammed shut around him. "Preferably one with a weapon it it?! I may like food, but not enough to _be_ it!"

"Ask and you might potentially receive!" Gwyn shouted before trading out with the boulder, Orion leaping over to it and throwing it down with more than double the force it would have had without it. Even after the boulder hit the T. Max, causing the surrounding area to tremor with the force of the collision, Orion wasn't finished. No, landing on the boulder with a powerful punch, he continued to pummel it into the Grimm, ending with a final massive right hook that shattered the boulder. "Muda," he said, looking up in thought for a moment after he did, realizing he was onto something.

"What does 'muda' mean?" Tabitha asked, Gwyn shaking his head and running past her towards the T. Max.

"Worry about it later, this thing still isn't dead!" he shouted, charging the Grimm with sword in hand. Catching a piece of the shattered rock, he tossed it into the air in anticipation of the T. Max's tail coming by at full speed. Trading out with the rock at the last moment, he allowed himself to chuckle at the rock being swatted into its face and bonking the dino in the nose before bringing Great Escape down onto the T. Max. Sadly, he didn't get anywhere near as deep as when he stabbed. "This thing has some chonk to it, that's for sure!" he shouted, tossing away a grenade before its head came around, jaws slamming shut around him.

"Gwyn!" Tabitha shouted, Gwyn looking at her weird from the side.

"What?" he asked, Tabitha seeing him standing next to her.

"Oh right, Semblance," she said, rolling her eyes as the grenade went off in the Grimm's mouth. Sadly, it simply shook off whatever damage it might have technically taken, blowing smoke out of its nose before roaring at the four.

"Not to be a debbie downer or anything, but juvenile T. Maxes are able to survive worse," Tabitha said, watching as the T. Max took a few angry steps towards them, the ground trembling with each footfall.

"I can dish out worse," Orion said, cracking his knuckles.

"Ok big guy," Gwyn said, patting Orion on the shoulder.

"I'm just hoping we can finish up before lunch…" Keith said, fumbling with his pockets before realizing that he had another sandwich, pulling it out and taking a rewarding bite.

"Well whatever you do, do it fast," Tabitha added, glaring at the T. Max. "I can only do this stuff for so long…"

"Meh, I've got plenty of time," Orion said with a shrug.

This earned an elbow from Gwyn, who shook his head as he did. "She's talking aura, dumbass."

"I see," Orion said, looking forward. "Ah, whatever, let's kill this fuck!"

[-0-]

Clearly, the others weren't as confident in their current situation, and as such continued to make their way through the forest, the Nevermore never far away as it followed them from overhead. Eventually the trees gave way to a large clearing full of dilapidated structures. With no trees to keep them hidden, they were forced to hide among the stones of the fallen buildings. Losing sight of them, the Nevermore landed on a nearby cliff, cawing in challenge.

"Well, that's great!" said an exasperated Yang. She clearly wasn't a fan of her current situation. Neither was Jaune, who looked around nervously for their other pursuer. Sadly, he found it, looking back to see the Deathstalker closing in on them, claws snapping in order to threaten them.

"Ah, man, _run_!" Jaune shouted, the others turning and seeing the second Grimm and being forced to flee from their hiding spaces. Due to them coming back into view, the Nevermore cawed and took flight.

"Nora, distract it!" Ren shouted, Nora offering a silly salute.

She did as she was told, running from her hiding place and weaving through the feathers rained down upon her. Grabbing her weapon, she fired a few grenades at the Nevermore that upon detonation drove it back a fair bit. The Deathstalker took this chance to try and charge her, but Blake and Ren pushed it back with a quick joint attack. Sadly, they were unable to get through its shell, so they were unable to do any more than halt its movements. Weiss quickly made her way to Nora, generating a Glyph to get her and Nora out of the way, leaving Ren and Blake to be targeted by the Deathstalker now.

"Go, go!" Pyrrha shouted, breaking away from Jaune and readying her rifle alongside Ren, the two firing away at the Deathstalker. It simply charged through the rounds, snapping at the two, though they dodged and continued to run. The entire group continued onward over the massive bridge, Ruby, Weiss, Yang, Jaune, and Nora being far in the lead with Blake, Pyrrha, and Jaune taking up the rear. Unknown to them, the Nevermore was diving into the bridge, smashing the center portion and dividing the two groups. Ruby took a few parting shots at the Nevermore as it flew away, Blake blocking a heavy blow from the Deathstalker.

"Man, we gotta get over there! They need help!" Jaune shouted, looking over the smashed end of the bridge.

"Let's do this!" Nora said, running alongside Jaune.

"Yeah, but, uh…" he said, looking into the misty abyss below them, "I can't make that jump."

Nora did what she did best and smiled evilly at Jaune, shoving him back and turning her weapon into a massive battlehammer, hopping to the other end of the bridge.

"Oh, wait!" Jaune shouted, realizing exactly what it was that Nora was planning. Ignoring the poor boy, Nora slammed her hammer into her end of the bridge, catapulting Jaune to the other side of the chasm. "No, no, no!" he shouted as he ragdolled through the air for the third time that day.

Following after, Nora planted a foot onto her weapon before firing it, launching herself after Jaune. Coming back down, she brought her hammer down hard onto the center of the Deathstalker's head, smashing it into the ground. Seeing the stinger coming by to pierce her, she pulled the trigger again and launched herself back away from the beast.

...And right into Blake, who she promptly knocked into the void behind them. Neat.

Luckily Blake had very fast reflexes, and chucked her sword at the Nevermore above her, sticking it in and pulling herself up to it by the ribbon, slashing it a few times before landing on the pillars by Ruby, Weiss, and Yang.

"It's tougher than it looks!" she shouted, turning to Yang and Weiss.

"Then let's hit it with everything we got!" Yang shouted back, readying her gauntlets. She did so right on time before the Nevermore came by, the four girls each taking aim and firing away however they could, though it was clear they didn't seem to be putting much of a dent in it. This was evidenced as it crashed into the platform they were standing on and destroyed it, forcing the girls to jump from stone to stone to some more solid ground.

"None of this is working!" Weiss shouted, turning towards Ruby. Ruby took a moment to think about her options, seeing Blake swing to another section of ground while Yang fired away in vain at the Nevermore.

"I have a plan!" she shouted, an idea popping into her head. "Cover me!"

With that she shot away, Weiss readying her rapier and heading back into the fray.

Down below them, the other four students were still dealing with the Deathstalker, and they seemed to be having an equally hard time.

"We gotta move!" Jaune shouted, the four rushing forth. Pyrrha was the first to strike, blocking a hit from the Grimm and in turn taking a slash at it. Rearing back, it tried to strike with its other claw, though Jaune moved in and blocked it instead, giving Pyrrha another chance to attack while he was knocked back. Ren stood close and fired at the base of the stinger where the armor was the lightest, which garnered more attacks towards him. Nora wasn't having any of that, and fired at the incoming claws, knocking them back. However, Pyrrha then speared it right in one of its eyes, the recoil causing it to swat away Ren.

"Ren!" Nora shouted, watching as he hit a rock and fell, not getting back up. Jaune managed to stand, however, seeing that Ren had managed to do some serious damage to its stinger.

"Pyrrha!" Jaune shouted, Pyrrha seeing the same thing he had and nodding.

"Done!" she replied, chucking her shield at the stinger, severing it and dropping it onto the head of the Deathstalker where it stuck. The shield bounced back to her on its own, Pyrrha easily catching it and raising it in case the Deathstalker struck again.

"Nora, nail it!" Jaune shouted.

"Heads up!" she shouted, slamming her hammer onto Pyrrha's shield, pulling the trigger right as Pyrrha pushed up, launching Nora high into the air. Smiling, she squealed with glee as she flew through the air, bringing her hammer down hard onto the stinger, driving it all the way through its head and crushing the bridge beneath them.

With no real ground to stand on, Jaune and Pyrrha moved to the solid land behind the now dead Deathstalker. Pulling the trigger one more time, she launched herself over to the same spot as Jaune and Pyrrha. Ren came up as well, clearly still winded due to his panting, collapsing to the ground once he joined his classmates. The ones who were still conscious looked above them to see the others still fighting the Nevermore, guns blazing.

Yang was currently the most aggressive in her ranged assault, firing shell after shell at the Nevermore. Pumping one right into the side of its head, it caused it to turn towards her and scoop her up in its beak. Yang was hoping for this, and held its beak open as she fired shell after shell down its open throat, shouting all the while.

"I! Hope! You're! _Hung-! ...-gry!"_ she shouted, turning around and seeing the rapidly approaching cliff face. Forcing herself out of the beast's beak, she landed on some ruins nearby as it smashed into the cliff.

Despite her efforts, the behemoth bird recovered quickly and took back to the skies. Yang didn't pay it any mind, however, as she saw her sister had finished whatever preparations she needed for whatever she was planning. Weiss was also moving in towards the Nevermore, passing by Yang as the avian Grimm tried to gain some height and trapping its tail feathers in ice, locking it in place. With her part done, Weiss moved back towards the others via a glyph that propelled her back quickly. Seeing she was on her way, Ruby nodded to Blake, who in turn threw her weapon to Yang, the pair pulling the ribbon tight as Ruby landed on it with her scythe. This pulled it all the way back to Weiss who suspended it in place with a blackened glyph.

"Of course you would come up with this idea," Weiss said, rolling her eyes.

"Think you can make the shot?" Ruby asked, turning back toward Weiss.

"Hmm! Can I!" Weiss scoffed proudly, Ruby simply looking at her for a moment.

"Can't?" she asked, knowing it was a lot to ask of someone she'd just started working with.

"Of course I can!" Weiss shouted back, Ruby nodding energetically and turning back to the still trapped Nevermore, pumping Crescent Rose. Weiss then gave Ruby a push with the glyph, launching her at the Nevermore so fast that the ground beneath them cracked, rose petals filling the air behind her. As she soared through the air, Ruby fired round after round to increase her speed even further and to properly aim herself at her target- the Nevermore's neck. Hooking her scythe right under its beak, she continued to fire as she dragged it up the cliff, running along a series of white glyphs made by your local Schnee heiress. Upon reaching the top, both she and the Nevermore screamed, Ruby removing the beast's head from its shoulders, both parts of its body tumbling limpy into the abyss below.

The others couldn't help but watch on in amazement as she did, Jaune being the first to be able to speak after the fact.

"Wow…" he muttered, watching as Ruby came back to the edge of the cliff, her cloak flowing in the breeze along with the petals that had blown up to the top with her.

"Well…" Yang said, smiling widely at her sister. "That was a thing!"

Ruby couldn't help but smile back at the others, though all of their attention was drawn to the sound of a familiar roar nearby.

"Uhhh…" Nora muttered. "Are Orion and the others still fighting the dinosaur?"

"Oh jeez, I completely forgot about them!" Jaune shouted, his hand flying to his forehead. "They should be alright, right?"

"I have faith in Gwyn," Pyrrha said, nodding, though not without hearing Weiss yell 'I wouldn't if I were you' from behind her. "He's quite skilled. I've seen it firsthand too much to doubt him."

"And Orion packs a punch like you wouldn't believe!" Nora boasted. "I should know; he's the only person who's ever beaten me in arm-wrestling!"

"They do that a lot…" Ren mumbled, still sitting tiredly upon the ground.

"Let's just hope they don't get themselves hurt out there," Yang mumbled. "I wanna watch some of Gwyn's streams…"

"Same!" Ruby shouted back from her spot on the cliff, looking back to the spot in the woods the roar had come from. "Orion, Gwyn… You've got this."

[-0-]

"I don't got this!" Tabitha shouted, dodging out of the way of the T. Max as it came barreling by. Quickly picking up a rock, she lit it on fire before chucking it at the beast, pegging it in the side of the head and spreading her fire to it. Having been lit before, however, it simply smashed its head against a tree and put itself out. "Oh yeah, I do not got this."

Roaring at her once more it began to charge her, causing her to look around in fear to try and find a suitable hiding spot. Finding none, she brandished her sword in preparation for what might come. Luckily, that ended up being Keith sliding in with his bow drawn and a special arrow drawn, firing at the ground in front of the beast. This arrow was actually loaded with an earth dust crystal, the crystal shattering and causing a large stone structure to form under the T. Max's head, slamming right into its chin and staggering it. "I got this," Keith said, Tabitha sighing in relief and getting back out of the way.

"Where are Gwyn and Orion?" Tabitha shouted, the slugger and sniper not being immediately with them. "I don't think we can take this thing down on our own."

"Gwyn said to keep it distracted, he and Orion had a plan I guess," Keith responded, readying Keystone as the T. Max righted itself. "He sounded pretty confident, so I'm willing to trust him."

"Day one and you're already trusting these guys, huh?" she asked, swapping Violet Grace to gun mode and firing at the T. Max, hitting it a few times in the eye and causing it to flinch. "You're quicker to warm up to others than I am, at least."

The T. Max roared once more, clearly enraged by its current predicament. In an unexpected move, it curled into a ball and started rolling towards Keith and Tabitha, Orion and Gwyn choosing this moment to come back onto the scene.

"Sorry that took so long," Gwyn shouted, holding another one of his bombs, this one being black in color, "I want to make sure this will work!"

"Oh this bitch is rolling now?" Orion asked smugly, leaping in front of Tabitha and Keith.

"Orion, don't!" Keith shouted, tackling him and phasing right as the T. Max rolled into them. Tabitha was able to move in time, heading over to Gwyn and glaring at him.

"What?" he asked, Tabitha scoffing and turning away from him. "What?"

"Why'd you do that?" Orion asked in mild annoyance.

"I don't care how strong you are," Keith replied, getting back up, "but that thing's back is full of weapons. We can't risk trying to find out whether or not your aura can take getting hit by all of that."

"Ugh, fine," Orion muttered, getting back up. "Anyway, we've got a plan, but I'm gonna need it to bite me again."

"Ummm, Gwyn, are you trying to kill Orion?" Keith shouted as the T. Max rolled back around for another pass.

"Trust me, this should work!" Gwyn shouted back, chucking Keith the black grenade. "Hold onto this. When I say 'now', plant it on Barney the Big-Ass Butthole."

"Can do!" he replied, putting it in his pocket right as the T. Max rolled by, phasing whilst Orion appeared further away from it.

"Tabitha, I'm gonna need you to get it's attention when we can stop it from rolling," Gwyn said, Tabitha sighing and nodding.

"Sure, fine," she said, still not sure exactly what he was planning.

"Sweet! Orion, knock this bad boy over!" Gwyn shouted, Orion nodding and doing just that, shoulder checking it in the side and sprawling it back out on the ground. Rising, it roared into the air once more, turning towards Tabitha as she unloaded a full clip at it, though none of them seemed to do any real damage. It did what was needed though, and it charged towards Tabitha with its maw gaping open. She stood her ground, however, swapping Violet Grace to sword mode and igniting the blade once more. This was unnecessary though, as shortly after Orion popped right in front of her, catching its jaw and forcing it open while keeping it from moving.

"Keith, now!" Gwyn shouted, Keith nodding and running towards the T. Max, sliding underneath it and using Phantasm to phase the grenade into its chest before getting up and running back away. "Perfect! Orion, get him outta here!"

"With fuckin' pleasure!" the mountainous teen shouted, putting his all into lifting and _throwing_ the T. Max high into the air in the direction of the ruins the other students were at, all of them looking up and seeing the dinosaur going skyward.

"Now smile wide for the camera…" Gwyn muttered, taking a kneel and aiming at the T. Max, pulling the trigger only when it roared at them from above, a powerful black muzzle flare erupting from Great Escape that threw Gwyn back and into a tree. The round he'd fired did what he hoped though, piercing all the way through the T. Max and the bomb Keith had placed, setting it off and deafening everyone in the area with a massive black blast. Even the trail left by the bullet was a deep black, making it incredibly visible against the bright sky.

Their gambit ended up working, and it seemed that the T. Max was blown to bits, a fact that the students down below were about to learn the hard way.

"Uh oh, incoming!" Jaune shouted, raising his shield as some of the old weapons were launched down towards them a spear bouncing off of his shield. Pyrrha was able to do the same, though the others weren't quite as lucky, being forced to dodge through the iron-tainted hail. Aside from Yang that is, as she was in one of the few spots not peppered by metal.

"Oh, you guys are so over dramatic," she said, waving it off. "A little rain never hurt anyone!"

Right after she said this, one of the T. Max's severed fingers hit her in the head, causing her to turn towards the forest with her hair aflame and her eyes burning red. "I'll kill them."

"Whoooaaa, that was incredible!" Ruby yelled, watching as the four came out of the forest, making sure that whatever remained of the T. Max wasn't alive.

"Oh yeah," Gwyn replied, throwing up his hand sign. "I told you guys it would work!"

"You're lucky Orion was able to give it that big of a toss," Tabitha muttered, putting her weapon away. "And that he was able to keep it from eating me!"

"Yeah, the only one out here allowed to eat right now is me!" Keith shouted back, pulling another snack from his pockets. Sadly, he was too slow, Orion being able to steal it and begin eating it before he could react. "Aw…"

"Too slow," Orion chuckled, finishing what he'd yoinked. "It was good though, I'll give you that."

"I've had a lot of experience," Keith replied, getting out a new snack. "I've narrowed down the good stuff, but there's a lot of good stuff."

"Oh well, looks like we've done everything we needed to, so let's head back," Gwyn said. "Orion, still got the relic?"

"Ah," he said, holding up the chest piece.

"Oh right, do I still have ours…?" Tabitha said, checking her pouches and finding her own piece. "Oh, good."

"Solid!" Gwyn said, throwing up a thumbs up and a wide smile.

"Looks like everyone got out without so much as a scratch…" Ruby said quietly. "Good! I was hoping that my first real day wouldn't end poorly, but it looks like everything went smoothly!"

"Agreed!" Gwyn said, now standing up by Ruby, startling her.

"Ah, Gwyn!" she said, stumbling back. "How did you-?"

"Semblance," he said, cutting her off. "I'll explain later. For now, let's head back to campus! I've got a lot of footage to edit, so I wanna get on it quick," he finished, gesturing to his still recording scroll.

"Oh, right!" she said, standing up straight, waving at Gwyn's scroll.

"Here's to a long, fruitful career at Beacon, huh?" Gwyn said, putting an arm around Ruby's shoulder and looking at his scroll.

"Oh yeah!" she cheered, smiling widely.

"Well they've made fast friends…" Weiss said aloud, Orion walking up next to her and nodding.

"Ye," he said, Weiss looking to him and shrugging, looking back up at Ruby and Gwyn.

[-0-]

"Russel Thrush. Cardin Winchester. Dove Bronzewing. Sky Lark."

Once they'd finished up back in the forest, they made their way back to campus, where Ozpin took the liberty of doing one last thing before turning them loose; forming their teams.

As he spoke, images of each named student appeared on the screen above them, the crowd below them cheering.

"The four of you retrieved the black bishop pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team CRDL, led by... Cardin Winchester!"

Upon this announcement, the crowd cheered even more, though Gwyn and Orion couldn't help but shake their heads. As the crowd continued to clap, the four brutes sat down while four more took their place on the stage, a group much more likeable than the last.

"Jaune Arc. Lie Ren. Pyrrha Nikos. Nora Valkyrie. The four of you retrieved the white rook pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team JNPR," he said, the crowd cheering once more. Nora even gave Ren a hug, despite his protests. "Led by... Jaune Arc!"

"Huh?" Jaune said, a bit shocked. "L-Led by...?"

"Congratulations, young man," Ozpin said, nodding to Jaune. Pyrrha, smiling wider than the others, gave Jaune a friendly little shoulder bump, but he wasn't quite ready for it and fell on his butt, causing the audience to laugh amidst their cheers.

"Next! Blake Belladonna. Ruby Rose. Weiss Schnee. Yang Xiao Long," Ozpin said, motioning for the four to come to the stage. "The four of you retrieved the white knight pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team RWBY. Led by…" he said, drawing this one out longer than the others. Weiss, as full of herself as always, couldn't help but take a preemptive step forward, only to be shut down when Ozpin spoke. "Ruby Rose!"

Needless to say, Weiss was quite surprised, as was Ruby, Yang rushing over and picking her sister up in a crushing hug.

"I'm so proud of you!" she cheered, her sister struggling once more against her sister's strength.

"Now," Ozpin sighed, knowing full well who was next, "Orion Rubidus, Gwydion Elgin, Keith Stone, Tabitha Ostrum. The four of you retrieved the white bishop pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team REKT. Led by…" he said, sighing once more. Sometimes, his job was just a bit too much for him. "Well, you're a special case. Team REKT will be led cooperatively by both Orion Rubidus and Gwydion Elgin."

"Yooo, sweet," Gwyn said, fist-bumping Orion as the other teen mumbled 'Aces' once more.

"It looks like things are shaping up to be an... interesting year." Ozpin said, sipping from his mug.

"Now that initiation is over, new students have been assigned their rooms," Glynda explained, taking over the stage as Ozpin left to take care of whatever business he had to deal with at the moment. "Please refer to your scrolls to see what room you've been assigned and spend the rest of the day getting situated in your quarters."

The students present did as they were instructed, Nora being the first to make any sort of move, zipping over to Orion with her scroll in hand.

"Alright, you big lug, where are you rooming?" she questioned, looking at the room number shown on his scroll and then back to hers, leaping in the air and cheering. "Oh yeah, we're right next to each other!"

"Well that's convenient," Ren admitted. He wouldn't say it out loud, but he most certainly appreciates being able to check in with his childhood friend without any issues.

"I suppose that means we'll be close by as well," Pyrrha said as she approached Gwyn, holding up her own scroll for him to verify.

"Yep!" he said, grinning once more. "Lucky, huh?"

"Elgin, scroll, gimme," Yang said, snatching Gwyn's scroll and comparing his room number to her own. "Oh, you're by Team RWBY too."

"Even better!" Gwyn said, taking his scroll back from Yang. "Hey, once you guys are all settled, I'd be more than happy to host all of you! It'll probably be way easier to chat when we aren't on some kinda time limit or with Grimm breathing down your neck."

"Are we all gonna fit in the room?" Orion asked, Gwyn thinking for a moment and nodding.

"We should. I requested the largest room on the floor," Gwyn explained. "I've got a lot of equipment to fit in there, after all."

"Oh sweet," Orion said, giving Gwyn a fist bump.

"That being said, we should probably head over, my stuff if probably being dropped off and I need to make sure it goes to the right spot," Gwyn said, pocketing his scroll and heading to the building he was to call his dorm.

"I'm with him then, I've got some stuff to take care of in the room too," Orion said, following after Gwyn. Figuring they had nothing else to do, Tabitha and Keith followed after, teams RWBY and JNPR being left to themselves.

"They're right," Ruby said, checking her scroll for the room number, "we should go get settled in as soon as possible!"

"Oh yeah, our first activity as a team! I'm in!" Yang shouted, she and Ruby heading off to do just that.

"Should we join them?" Blake asked, turning to Weiss.

"Definitely, I don't trust them on their own," Weiss said, Blake nodding and following the Schnee heiress to their room.

"Uhhh, yeah, we should go do that too," Jaune said, Pyrrha nodding.

"After you, leader," she said, causing Jaune to cough and stutter.

"O-oh, uh, right! Yeah, l-let's go!" he said, turning to go to his team's room, the rest of them following after him.

An interesting year indeed.

[-0-]

Meanwhile, somewhere else in Vale, Roman Torchwick, the criminal from the day prior, seemed to be plotting something. Speaking on the phone, he seemed to be having a rather heated conversation with the person on the other line. Hanging up, he slammed the phone down, leaning back at the desk he was sitting at. Grabbing a cigar and lighting it, he puffed a few smoke rings before a hooded man came by with a hand cart carrying a crate. Nodding, Roman pulled out a few Lein and placed them on the table, which the man promptly took.

"Open it," Roman commanded, the man obliging and prying it open with a crowbar, revealing a massive amount of various forms of dust, from vials to rounds and crystals. Picking up a blue dust crystal, he examined it more closely.

"We're gonna need more men…" he lamented, looking back to his desk, and more specifically the map laying on it. The most important parts seemed to be the crossed out districts that weren't of any interest to him, and the circle around the most vital area in Vale;

Beacon.

* * *

**A/N: So, another chapter done, and we are excited to get into the next one, the story can finally begin in full. So begins the chaos of REKT in earnest, these bois (and gorl) will do everything from pranks to spanks. Especially Team CRDL, cause that shit's funny. Anyway, down the rabbithole we go! I miss anything Oni?**

**Oni: Nah, I think that's about it. Reminder though, to find the character art, please refer to my Twitter at-**

**wildcardoni**

**OniHelix out!**

'**Till All Are One!**


	6. Chapter 6 Home Sweet Home

**A/N: Welp Chapter 6 already, hopefully you guys enjoyed the art, and there will be more eventually, most likely on twitter again. As for the story, here it is. Now take your lumps.**

**Oni: I will take absolutely no lumps, that's a bit fucked. No, I will instead take a chapter, thank you, do not come again.**

* * *

Chapter 6

Home Sweet Home

"This is it, right?" Orion said, standing outside a door.

"Yep," Gwyn said, double checking the door number with the number he'd received on his scroll. "Home sweet home right there."

"Ah," Orion said once more.

"That means that this key," Gwyn said, holding up the keys they'd received earlier, "is for this room."

Unlocking the door, he swung it open to reveal their room, Keith and Tabitha coming up behind them.

"This it?" Tabitha asked, checking her own scroll.

"Judging by the fact he was able to unlock the door, yes," Keith said, earning a punch in the arm from Tabitha. "Yeah, that's fair."

"So yeah, I'm going in guys and gal," Gwyn said, stepping inside. As they hadn't done anything yet, the room was rather basic, with a few beds placed around and a small bathroom near the door.

"I'm using that first," Tabitha said, gesturing to the shower within.

"Go nuts," Orion said nonchalantly before heading inside. Turning left, he saw their room had an extra portion that made it larger than the regular rooms. Additionally, near the doorway on the extended wall was a small hole in the wall. "Oh, great."

"Eh, it's fine, this room is bigger than the others anyway," Gwyn said, waving it off. He wasn't too worried about a hole in the wall.

"Why is this room bigger, anyway?" Keith asked, pacing the room.

"I was able to spend extra for an old RA room," Gwyn said, sitting on a bed. "It wasn't being used, so they decided to let students use it at extra charge. That's why the door faces the whole hallway, so the RA can keep a better eye on the floor."

True to Gwyn's word, the others turned and saw down the whole hall, as well as the other students getting to their rooms, among them teams RWBY and JNPR.

"Oh, there's REKT's room," Jaune said, waving to the others standing within.

Yang leaned her head out of her room and waved enthusiastically at those present before immediately falling onto the floor.

"Why is your room bigger?" Ruby said, shoving her way into REKT's room.

"Paid extra," Gwyn said again, looking more closely at the beds. "These aren't gonna fit as well with all of my stuff…"

"Bunk beds?" Keith asked enthusiastically.

"Ye," Orion said, grabbing a bed and just tossing it on top of another. "Gwyn, you're above me."

"This is acceptable," Gwyn said, jumping up to the bed Orion had put in place for him.

"So I guess I'm above you," Tabitha said, nudging Keith.

"Yeah that sounds about right," Keith said, grabbing another bed and putting it on top of the last single bed, though far more carefully than Orion did.

Pushing the beds to the corners on the opposite side of the room from the door, the team nodded as they looked at how much open room they had.

"I'm gonna take this section of the room, by the way," Gwyn said, gesturing to the extra portion to the side of the door. "I need a fair bit of room for my desk and gaming rig."

"Oh right, you stream," Orion said, adjusting the bed to make sure it wouldn't fall on him in the middle of the night, assuming Gwyn moved too much.

"Stream, game, edit, you name it boy, I do it all," Gwyn said, hopping off the bed. "I figured we'd need bunks even with a bigger room, so I brought some stuff to set them up."

"You planned for everything, didn't you?" Tabitha asked, Gwyn responding with a sort of half nod.

"Kinda sorta," he said, checking his scroll and seeing he had a text and an incoming call. "My stuff is on it's way, so I should head down to make sure everything is going fine."

"Before you do that," said a new voice, belonging to a girl as she walked in, "you've gotta check in with me. I'm Coco Adel, a second year and your RA. If you've got questions, come to me first."

"Gotcha," Orion responded. Such a vast vocabulary on that one.

"So…" Coco said, checking the clipboard she'd brought with her. "Team REKT? Am I in the right place?"

"Yes you are," Tabitha said.

"Ok, your names?" Coco asked, pen ready to check them off.

"Orion Rubidus," Orion said, hands in his pockets.

"Keith Stone," Keith said, raising a hand in greeting.

"Tabitha Ostrum," Tabitha said, nodding to Coco as she did.

Expecting a fourth response, Coco looked around for a second, lowering her sunglasses as she did. "You guys have a fourth member, right?"

"Yeah, sorry, I had to take a call," Gwyn said, stepping in from around the corner in the room. "Gwydion Elgin. That should make four."

"Wait a second," Coco said, outright removing her sunglasses. "What's your name?"

"Uh, Gwydion Elgin," Gwyn said once more, putting away his scroll. "Is there something wrong?"

"No, um, uh, I just…" Coco stammered, covering her face with the clipboard. "I'm sorry I'm just a really big fan!"

"Oh well that's nothing to be embarrassed about," Gwyn said, shrugging.

"It's not just that, um…" she stuttered, lowering the clipboard and revealing her heavily blushed face. "I'm, uh… *mumble*"

"Didn't quite catch that," Gwyn said, Tabitha snickering in the background.

"I said I'm… MisstressofCoffee…" she said, now within Gwyn's hearing range.

"Oh my god, I'm so glad to finally meet you!" Gwyn cheered, a beaming smile on his face. "Now I know why you were so excited for me to go to Beacon!"

"I'd love to stay and chat, but I've gotta get my RA duties done before anything else. Floor program at 6 this evening, by the way!" she said, running over to RWBY's room to repeat the process once more. They could tell she was doing it much faster than with them though, as both she and the teams she spoke to sounded rushed.

"So, she's a fan of yours?" Orion asked, leaning over to Gwyn.

"Tier 3 Sub. BIG fan," Gwyn specified, watching on as Coco went room by room and making sure only the people who were supposed to be there were there. "Anyway, let our fine RA know that if she wants to chat, I'll be getting my stuff brought in."

With that, Gwyn walked out, shortly thereafter Coco coming back to see that Gwyn had left.

"Oh, did I miss him?" she lamented.

"He said he's getting his stuff if you wanna chat," Tabitha said, checking her own scroll for info on her luggage. "I'm sure he wouldn't mind a hand, if you wanted to join him."

"I'd love to, but I have things to do to prep for the floor plan," she said, waving and turning to leave. "6pm!"

"Yep, 6pm, gotcha," Orion said, making a mental note of it.

"Well in the meantime, I'm gonna go grab my stuff and take a shower," Tabitha said, waving her scroll around. "Initial transports are here with people's stuff, and my stuff is there."

Keith checked his own scroll, seeing that his things were not on the initial transports. Groaning with displeasure, he flopped onto his bed and pulled out another sandwich, which Orion couldn't help but notice as he fumbled with the bag.

"Dude, how many sandwiches do you have?" Orion asked, surprised. Where the hell did he fit all of them?

"Not enough, that's why I want my stuff so I can make more…" Keith lamented, taking a bite of his sandwich.

"Orion!" called Tabitha from the hall, the co-leader leaning out to see her coming through with her luggage.

"Wat," he replied, leaning a little bit too far and nearly falling.

"Gwyn said he's gonna take a second, he's got a lot of stuff. It looked really heavy though, so I'm not sure how he's gonna get it up here…" she said, rolling her things into the room.

"He may need a hand then," Keith said, hopping off his bed and walking towards the door, Gwyn walking in with his own luggage.

"Nope, just need a second," he said, putting his luggage by his bed. "Watch out."

Keith and Tabitha looked at each other and shrugged, not entirely sure what he was getting at while Orion merely stood by the door, knowing exactly what he was gonna do.

"Come over here," he said, Keith and Tabitha doing as they were told as Gwyn stood in the extra part of the room before disappearing, being replaced by a large gaming desk with a reasonable sum of boxes on top of it, among them being one full of games and streaming equipment like a mic, stand, and headphones, a computer with 3 monitors, a large tv, and even a mini fridge. There were more boxes, but those were what they could tell was there.

"Oh yeah, he can do that," Tabitha said, nodding in approval. "Wait, why didn't he help me then?"

"You didn't exactly ask," Keith responded. Checking his scroll, he saw he had a message from Gwyn saying that the secondary transports had arrived and that his stuff was among them. "Oh, sweet," he said before immediately being replaced with Gwyn, now holding a black, white, and green gaming chair.

"There we go, that should be everything," he said, pushing the chair off to the side. "Unpacking won't be as easy though…"

Checking his own scroll, he saw a message from Keith asking to be brought back, Gwyn obliging and trading with Keith.

"Wow, that's convenient," he said, getting one final message on his scroll from Gwyn that told him to drop a large piece of garbage or something on the floor. He did just that, getting all of his garbage from his snacks out of his pockets and balling them up before dropping it on the ground. As expected, this enabled Gwyn to return, now holding one more box.

"Almost forgot the bunk stuff," he said, turning to Keith. "You had a lot of trash, huh?"

"Yeah, how'd you know?" he asked, Gwyn smirking and putting the box down.

"I can kinda sense where stuff I can use my Semblance on is," he explained, opening up the box and removing the parts to secure the beds. "And I can tell the difference between size and material to avoid messing stuff up, kinda like a sixth sense. Wasn't always the case though…"

"Sounds like story tiiime," Orion cheered.

"Not much of a story," Gwyn said as he secured the first bed. "When I first unlocked my Semblance, I used it as much as possible to get used to it. Only real mishap was when I traded with stuff out of sight. Like the time I accidentally traded with my dad when he was taking a shower. I only scarred my friends for life a little bit!"

"You accidentally dropped your naked dad into the middle of a room full of your friends?" Tabitha asked, trying not to laugh.

"On accident!" Gwyn shouted, turning around. "After that I figured I had to work on that, so I'd put stuff around the house to try and figure out how to make it work. Lots of my pranks involve my Semblance because of that, it's good practice."

"The more you use it the better," Orion agreed, nodding. "Same thing I do. No funny dad stories though…"

"I'd have pranked my brother and sister the same way," Gwyn said, feeling like he should change the subject, "but they both moved out before I got my Semblance. Vacuo and Atlas no less."

"They moved all the way to other kingdoms?" Keith asked as he went through his bags.

"They each went to academies there and stayed after they graduated. Brother in Vacuo, sister in Atlas," Gwyn said, finishing the beds. "There! Now you'd have to do something really dumb to knock the beds down."

"You doubt my power sir," Orion said, Gwyn turning to him and glaring.

"Don't push it," he said. "Literally, don't push it too hard or you might knock them loose or something."

"Hey, what about your stuff?" Keith asked from his bed, where he was now putting his sheets and other bedding. "All of the transports should be in."

"Oh, right. Fuck," Orion said before disappearing, having clearly forgotten to get his shit.

"One of our great leaders, gentlemen," Tabitha said, shaking her head. "You're still on thin ice too, Gwyn."

"Yeah that's fair," Gwyn said, now unboxing his setup.

"Knock knock, I'm coming in," said Yang, Ruby behind her.

"Hey, our beds don't exactly fit in our room so we were gonna ask…" Ruby started, looking at the way REKT had done their beds. "You know, bunk beds make a lot of sense actually…"

"It was my idea!" Keith proudly proclaimed, finishing up with his bed.

"And it's a good idea," Yang replied, turning to see Gwyn setting up his stuff. "Oh wow, you have an impressive setup."

"Most of it's custom!" Gwyn shouted, fumbling with wires under the desk. "I make plenty from subs and donations, so I figured I'd treat myself and send the rest to charity."

"Oh that's so nice of you!" Ruby cheered.

"I mean, I still use a bit for myself, like ammo, materials, and gas," Gwyn said, plugging in a few more wires.

"Gas?" Yang asked.

"Oh yeah, I have a motorcycle," Gwyn said, finishing sorting the wires and standing back up. "I got it when I turned 16. I took it to class most of the time so my parents didn't have to drive me."

"Motorcycle, huh?" Yang asked.

"Yeah, a Gen. 7 Atlas Elite," Gwyn said, pulling his chair over and making sure everything turned on. "I entered a tournament to win a custom bike from Atlas Motorworks and got first, so I was able to more or less design my own."

"Dang, I got mine for graduation and got a custom paint job…" Yang lamented.

"Yo I forgot all of my stuff was in the backseat of my car," Orion said, walking back into the room and tossing a couple bags onto his bed. "I ran over to the transports for nothing."

"All of our stuff was in transport one, even Weiss and Blake's stuff," Ruby said, remembering that they were there to try and figure out how to make it so they could fit all their stuff in the room. "Speaking of which, we should get our stuff put away so we can settle down before the floor program."

"Good idea," Yang said, she and her sister turning to go back to their own room, REKT hearing Ruby say they were doing bunks followed by Weiss saying she always wished she could have bunk beds as a kid.

...This was immediately followed by the sounds of the beds crashing around, as clearly they didn't have the right equipment for that.

"...Are they ok?" Tabitha asked quietly.

"We're fine!" came Ruby's muffled reply from through the wall.

"I'm gonna go check on them," Tabitha said, going over to RWBY's room to do just that. This was followed by the sounds of even more crashing, groaning, and then a little bit more silence as they supposedly put their stuff away, and finally Tabitha shouting 'Why do you read that stuff?!' with Blake quickly replying 'The plots aren't that bad!'

"They may need a few more hands than just Tabitha…" Keith said as he rose from his bed, heading over to RWBY's room to assist. He made sure to knock beforehand though, as he wanted to make sure Blake had time to hide whatever she needed to hide. She did just that, allowing Keith to enter once she finished. True to his word, he gave Team RWBY whatever help they needed, though he soon came back, smiling like an idiot.

"You're gonna wanna see this," he said, trying not to laugh. Orion and Gwyn looked to each other and shrugged, the pair heading to RWBY's room to see what they did. It turned out that Ruby's bed was hung above Weiss' bed by a few ropes from the ceiling, and Yang's was above Blake's through the courtesy of a multitude of books 'borrowed' from Blake.

"What…" Gwyn said, looking in confused awe at the beds.

"...the hell?" Orion finished, equally as confused as Gwyn as to their… odd bed setup.

"Do you guys… want some bunk equipment?" Gwyn said, looking at the beds. "I remember where I got mine if you want some…"

"Nah, this is better," Ruby said, looking proudly at their beds.

"...Yeah…" Orion said, nudging Ruby's bed, the whole thing swinging and squeaking.

"Why?" Gwyn asked, even more confused.

"Because this is the first thing we did as a team," Ruby said, turning back to Gwyn and Orion. "I don't wanna throw it away."

"That's... " Orion said, cocking his head to the side in confusion.

"...pretty wholesome, actually," Gwyn said, nodding in approval.

"You two are really finishing each other's sentences already?" Weiss asked, looking between the leaders of REKT.

"I guess," the pair said in tandem, shrugging as they did. This was followed by an immediate fistbump between the two, causing Weiss to scoff.

"Yo I'm out of food," Keith said, feeling his pockets and realizing that he was out of chips and sandwiches. "Anyone wanna go get something to eat or something?"

"Do we really have time to eat?" Tabitha said, checking her scroll for time. "We only have like 2 hours until the floor program, and I don't wanna risk being late if you guys take longer to eat than that."

"Yeah, and getting into Vale is it's own horse," Gwyn said, leaning against the wall. "And then we'd all have to agree what place to eat at, which I don't think we can do considering we've really only known each other for…" he said, checking his scroll, "about 7 hours."

"Yeah that's fair," Orion said, nodding in agreement.

"That being said, I am still hungry and would like food," Keith said, sitting on Weiss' bed.

"There are vending machines around campus, you can get something from there. All you have to do is get off my bed and out of my room and you can go find one," Weiss said snarkily.

"Look, I don't wanna risk the rest of my team forgetting about me and throwing my stuff out," Keith said, still sitting on Weiss' bed. "My Semblance's side effect is potent."

"You can discuss it in your own room, you know," Weiss said, trying once more to 'subtly' convince REKT to get out.

"We were inviting you too, you know," Keith said, ignoring Weiss' pleas.

"Plus, I'm friends with half your team," Gwyn said, nudging Yang and Ruby. "Among that half being your leader."

"He's got a good point, you know," Ruby said smugly.

"We could solve our problems by getting a vending machine for the room…" Orion said, thinking out loud.

Gwyn merely stood there and thought about it for a moment before heading back to their room, looking around for a moment and gasping.

"But we totally could thooo," he said, grabbing his keys and coming back to RWBY's room. "Orion, we're getting a vending machine."

"Oh sweet," he said, going along with Gwyn to get this fabled vending machine.

"So…" Weiss said, turning back to Keith, "you gonna join them?"

"Nah, I've actually got more stuff to grab for the room," he said, standing up and leaving the room, leaving Tabitha alone with RWBY.

"You kicking me out too?" she asked, Weiss sitting on her bed and contemplating it.

"Nah, the boys are just annoying. And loud. They're annoyingly loud," Weiss said, rationalizing her thoughts. "Especially Gwydion."

"What do you have against Gwyn?" Tabitha asked, Weiss frowning and turning away.

"It's a long story," she said, clearly not wanting to go into detail.

"Well if you ever wanna go into detail, I've been told I'm a great listener," Tabitha said, heading towards the door. "I'll be on my way though, I've been dying to take a shower since the moment Ozpin threw us off that cliff."

"Ahhh, good times…" Ruby sighed in reminiscence.

And with that, Tabitha returned to her own room, prepping her things for a shower. Normally, she would just lock the door to ensure people wouldn't watch her, buuut considering that one of her teammates could teleport, one of them could turn intangible, and one of them could do… well whatever it is that Orion can do, she figured she should also put some kind of note on the door. Looking through her stuff, she was happy to see that she'd packed a whiteboard. She quickly mounted it to the bathroom door and got out a marker, writing 'I'm taking a shower, don't come in or I'll burn you- Tabitha'.

"There, that should get the point across," she said, capping the marker. Gathering the rest of her shower supplies, she entered the bathroom and started the water, getting it to be just about as hot as it could get before being satisfied. Content with the heat, she got ready and got in, losing herself in the soothing warmth.

"Aaahhh… Finally~"

[-0-]

"So remind me why we took your motorcycle again?" Orion asked, clinging to Gwyn's back as he weaved through traffic.

"Many reasons!" Gwyn shouted back, dodging between a couple of cars going well under the limit. "For one, I was parked closer, and I wanna get everything set up as soon as possible so I can get some editing done before Coco's floor program. Second, I'm buying it, so I'd much rather drive. Personal preference. Third, it'd probably be easier for you to hold onto it while on a bike than in a car. Finally, fourth…"

As he said this, he revved the engine, the sound echoing through the shopping district.

"I'm proud of my baby," he said with a sly smile, pulling up to a stoplight. Pulling up next to the pair was a very fancy car, driven by a man of seemingly similar age to Gwyn and Orion. In his passenger seat was also a girl of similar age, and in his backseat was another boy and girl, all roughly the same age.

"Hey babe, get a load of these losers," the driver said, gesturing to the pair. "Poor guys have to spoon on this guy's shitty motorcycle."

"Ew," the girl in the front seat said with a laugh.

"Can I help you fine folks?" Gwyn asked, raising his goggles and sneakily recording with his scroll.

"Yeah you can, actually," the guy said, removing his sunglasses and looking at Gwyn. "Mind telling me where you cuties met? I bet it'd be a great spot for a date."

"Yeah, actually, a drop ship for combat school," Orion replied, glaring at the driver. Sadly, his overwhelming presence was not enough to scare the guy off, and he laughed while turning back to his passengers.

"Oh no, you hear that? He goes to combat school!" he jeered. "I think the big guy is threatening to beat us up!"

"Not a threat if I do it, you know," Orion said, Gwyn smirking and nudging him.

"Easy, I got this one," he said, shutting off the engine and flipping out the kickstand. "Would you feel more inclined to shut it if we talked more about those drugs in your glovebox?"

"The what now?" he asked, seemingly a little shaken.

"Oh, that rather substantial bag of illegal drugs in your glovebox. You know, the kind that can get you arrested?" Gwyn asked, resting his head in his palm. "What other drugs would I be talking about? The stuff in your trunk? Sure it's bad, but not as bad as what's in your glovebox."

"Bro, I have no idea what you're talking about," the guy said, seemingly worried now.

"Oh, then I can show you, maybe jog your memory," Gwyn said, getting off his bike. Shortly after he did that, he traded places with the guy, making sure that he put him up a bit up in the air so he fell on the ground. Gwyn himself ended up in the guy's driver seat, leaning over and opening the glovebox, his scroll coming by as he did to reveal the bag of drugs Gwyn mentioned being in the glovebox, pulling it out and showing it to the startled occupants of the car. "Wow yeah, look at that, it's even labelled Angel Dust. This stuff would put you behind bars for a looong time if anyone found out. It'd be a shame if it wound up on the channel of someone who, oh I don't know, consistently sits in the top 3 gross views on CineMaker, huh!"

"Yeah right!" the driver said, getting off the ground and walking back to his car.

"Doubt me?" Gwyn asked, laughing and shaking his head. "Oh, my sweet summer child. Gwydion Elgin. Look him up. Tell me who the first result looks like."

"Uhhh…" said the guy in the back seat, showing the girls his phone. "That's this guy. He's currently number 2."

"So yeah, take it easy with trying to roast random people you meet on the street. The burn you get back may not exactly be worth it," Gwyn said, trading places with the guy again and dropping him into his car. The guy quickly grabbed the bag of Angel Dust off his passenger's lap and hid it back in the glove compartment, turning back to Gwyn in shock.

"Oh, and one more thing," Gwyn said, starting his motorcycle back up, looking to the light and seeing it was about to turn green. "This 'shitty motorcycle' is completely custom from Atlas. If I had to guess how much it costs, I'd have to say at least twice as much as your cute little convertible."

Lowering his goggles and smiling, he revved his engine as the light turned green, speeding off while the guy sat in the car and just… thought about his life for a second before the car behind him started honking at him.

"I would have just beat the shit out of him, would have gotten the point across and saved us some time," Orion said.

"Yeah, but hurting a dickhead's pride lasts longer," Gwyn said, turning a corner. "That, and it's usually a bit more legal."

"Legalities, schmegalities, never cared too much," Orion shrugged.

"But bending the rules can be even more fun than breaking them," Gwyn said, smirking back at Orion.

"You're going to be the fun kind of co-leader, aren't you," Orion said smugly.

"Who knows?" Gwyn shrugged, pulling up to the store and shutting off the engine. "We can discuss that later. For now, I want a vending machine."

"Ah," Orion replied, following Gwyn into the store.

[-0-]

Keith eventually made it back to the room, having taken longer than he thought due to having dragged a couch with drawers in it up all the way to their floor.

"Should have done this while Gwyn was still here…" he muttered, finally pulling the couch up the final flight of stairs and into their hallway. "It's good, we're good, just gotta get this into the room…"

Dragging it down the hall, he was greeted by a few people checking what the sound was, only to open their doors and see Keith coming by dragging a couch.

"Do you uhhh… want some help or something?" Yang asked, cautiously leaning out in case he fell into her.

"Naaahhh, I already got it this far," Keith said, setting it down for a moment. "Plus it's a great workout!"

"Riiiggghhht," Yang said, leaning back into her room and slowly closing the door.

"Almost there…" Keith groaned, coming up to the room and opening the door, seeing that no one else was there. Glancing around, he saw that the bathroom door was closed, and there was now a whiteboard on it that read 'I'm taking a shower, don't come in or I'll burn you- Tabitha', likely meaning she was taking a shower. As he didn't want to risk being cremated on his first day of school, he heeded the note's advice and simply went about putting the couch in place. Or at least he would have, but he needed to be sure about something first.

Knocking on the bathroom door, he shouted, "Yo Tabitha, I'm back with a couch, so make sure you're dressed before you come outta there, or at least cover up with a towel or something."

"Ok, thanks," she said from within, meaning Keith's conscience was clear as he went back to putting the couch in between their beds.

Finishing that, he flopped gratefully onto the couch, sighing with content as he heard the shower turn off, followed by the sounds of towels being ruffled around. Shortly after that, he heard the door unlock, Tabitha walking out with nothing but a towel on as she used another to dry her hair.

"Not gonna… get dressed in there or anything?" he asked cautiously. Did she forget he was there?

"I need to air myself out a little bit when I shower," she said, pulling the towel off her head and… revealing a pair of wolf ears?

"Uhhh…" Keith said, pointing at the ears on her head, "what?"

"Huh?" she said, looking up for a moment. "Oh, yeah, I'm a Faunus. Wolf, to be specific."

"Those weren't there before," he asserted, Tabitha holding up a finger and grabbing her headband, putting in on and revealing that it actually held her ears down.

"They were, but they were hidden," she said, taking the headband back off. "I don't tend to trust people, but if you guys are going to be on my team, the least I can do is trust you."

"Oh, uhhh, thanks," he said, not entirely sure how to respond. "Those ears are really cute by the way."

"My parents think so too, but they're biased since they have them too," she said, drying her hair a little more with the towel. She moved a bit too much apparently, causing the towel being used to keep her covered to fall, accidentally revealing herself to Keith. She quickly covered herself with the other towel, but not before Keith saw just about everything.

"Hey you know how I made that joke earlier about my chest being bigger than yours?" he asked as Tabitha went back into the bathroom to secure her towel. "Well, looks like I was wrong. Good for you."

"Uh, thanks," she said awkwardly, coming back out and grabbing clean clothes before locking herself in the bathroom to get dressed.

"Oh, question," Keith asked, Tabitha opening the door and poking her head out.

"What's up?" she responded.

"Why is your chestplate so much smaller than your, y'know, chest?" he asked, Tabitha closing her eyes and sighing.

"Getting one sized properly for my bust would have cost way too much," she explained, leaning back inside to finish getting changed. "It was a lot cheaper to go a few sizes down and get a corset built in to make it actually cover everything."

"Doesn't that… make it a little hard to breathe? Just smooshing it all in there?" Keith asked.

"Oh like you wouldn't believe," Tabitha said, coming fully out of the bathroom since she was now dressed in pajamas. (I say pajamas, but it's really just a massive hoodie, short shorts, and stockings) "It's honestly part of why my stamina is so bad. Sure, my Semblance burns through aura like it's free, but I can't really catch my breath with that thing on. It sure beats getting stabbed in the chest though, that's for sure."

"Oh I bet," Keith said. "I guess I'm lucky my Semblance doesn't eat through aura that much, and that it's mostly defensive. I don't really wear much armor because of it."

"Lucky," she said, grabbing a few different sprays from her bag and going to town with them.

"Didn't you just take a shower? The heck are those for?" Keith asked, Tabitha switching to another spray.

"What does a wet dog smell like, Keith?" she asked, Keith thinking about it for a moment.

"Well, wet dog," he said, Tabitha nodding.

"Yes, good. Now, what kind of Faunus am I?"

"Uhhh…" he said, looking back to her ears. "Wolf?"

"Yes, now why would that be relevant?" Tabitha asked, realization finally dawning on Keith.

"Oh, right, wolves are similar to dogs, you're a wolf Faunus, so you'd smell like a wet dog when you come out of the shower," he said, nodding the whole time. "Naturally, you'd wanna smell like not that."

"Bingo," she said, finishing up with her sprays. "I don't use much makeup, but perfume is a must with how much I shower."

"Honey, I'm home," said Gwyn as he opened the door, followed closely by Orion with a large vending machine over his shoulder.

"Yooo, vending machine hype," Keith said, springing from the couch. "What kind are we working with here?"

"Taco," Orion said, setting the machine between Gwyn's desk and Keith and Tabitha's bunk. "Because only having tacos on tuesday is dumb as fuck."

"I also got some more stuff for my part of the room," Gwyn said, holding up a bag and some boxes. "A privacy curtain and some LED lights so that if you guys wanna sleep while I stream or game I won't keep you up."

"And I got a beanbag chair, because beanbag chairs are fuckin sweet," Orion said, holding forth a large beanbag chair. "Comfy."

"Oh, I see you aren't hiding your ears anymore," Gwyn said, setting his stuff down on his desk after taking a quick glance at Tabitha. "That's good, keeping them hidden under that headband probably isn't all too comfortable."

"Wait, you knew?" she asked, surprised. "How?"

"Infrared goggles," he pointed out. "Blood flow makes them warmer than your hair, so I could see them whenever I had them on. They're cute."

"Ye," Orion said in agreement.

"That seems to be the general consensus on them…" she muttered, Orion patting her on the head. Now that she wasn't wearing her heels, she was a fair bit shorter…

"If it helps, I knew too," Orion said, Tabitha looking at him weird.

"Ok Gwyn I get since he has those fancy goggles, but how do you know?" Tabitha asked.

"I had a hunch, so I checked," he said, Tabitha looking at him weird once more.

"Um, how? I wasn't exactly off guard at any point in that forest, you know," she said, her hands on her hips.

"Semblance," he said, shrugging and sitting in his beanbag chair.

"Ok, yeah, what kind of Semblance do you have? Now that we're a team, it'd help to know what I can and can't count on you for," she said. Orion turned to Gwyn, who nodded as he continued to put up his curtain.

"Yeah, fair," he said, fixing the curtain to the railing. "You first though."

"Oh, sure," Tabitha said, grabbing Gwyn's gaming chair and taking a seat. "Dead Flame. Basically, I can make this purple fire that kills Grimm and weakens people. I can generate it from about 10 feet away, but once it's on fire, it can be as far away as it wants and it'll keep burning," she said, Gwyn nodding.

"Keith, Semblance, go," he said, moving on to his lights.

"Phantasm, I can phase through stuff," he said, plugging the vending machine in. "The longer I stay intangible, the more aura it takes though. And people tend to forget I'm there, hence the name."

"No wonder you could sneak attack the T. Max so much…" Gwyn said in realization. "Oh! My turn! I call it Jack of All Trades. As you've seen, I can trade places with stuff, but I have a ton of specifications I have to follow. In short, anything I trade with has to be a solid or liquid, and fall within either a certain mass or volume range. Finally, I have about a 5 second cooldown between trades. I'm working on lowering that though."

"Wow that's… a lot of specific info," Tabitha said.

"I've been working on it for a long time, so I've found lots of my in and outs," Gwyn said, remembering one more tidbit. "Oh, and usually it doesn't take much aura to trade places with stuff, but when I take someone with me during a trade their aura interferes with mine and causes the aura cost to skyrocket. Trading places with people is fine though."

"How did you figure all that out?" Keith asked. "I train with mine pretty often, but even I don't know everything about it."

"I come from a family of Huntsmen, so figuring out what my Semblance could do was a big deal for them," Gwyn said, a smile on his face. "Us Elgins take pride in how skilled we are, you know."

"Having Huntsmen parents must help with that a lot," Tabitha conjectured.

"Oh, definitely," Gwyn said, putting up more of his lights. "I guess it helped that my brother and sister both had weird Semblances too, at least according to my parents."

"Ok, that makes sense," Keith said, nodding. "Ok, Orion, big man, Semblance. Tell us."

Orion, however, seemed to have fallen asleep in his beanbag chair, meaning he wasn't exactly raring to tell the others about his Semblance.

"Huh, it's not even 5 yet and he's passed out," Keith said, using the machine and getting himself a nice hot taco. "Yesss."

"Waking him up is hard," Gwyn said, getting closer to being done with his lights.

"Oh, I think I can do it," Keith said. "Apparently when I phase through people it feels super duper weird."

True to his word, he passed a hand through Orion's torso, startling him awake.

"WHOMST'D'VE?" he shouted, watching as Keith took a bite of his taco. "Oh, you. What were we doing again?"

"Talkin' bout Semblances," Keith said between bites.

"Oh cool, whose turn was it?" he asked, Gwyn kicking him from behind.

"Yours, that's why we woke you up," he said, putting up the last of his lights. "There we go. Now speak, lad, allow us to glean upon the truth of ye Semblance."

"Did you use any of those words right?" Tabitha asked, Gwyn shrugging in response.

"I dunno. Semblance time," he said, hopping off the desk and leaning against it.

"Correct," Orion said, nodding to Gwyn.

"Yes, correct, Semblance time," Gwyn reiterated.

"Yes, correct," Orion said, Gwyn finally catching on.

"Oh," he said, shaking his head. "Time Semblance."

"Ye," Orion said.

"Oh, you can like, mess with time?" Tabitha asked. "Yeah that makes sense I guess…"

"I only stop the time," Orion said with a slight accent, leaning back into his beanbag chair. "I get like 5 seconds and then I gotta wait a little while before I do it again. I call it Time Out."

"Not the weirdest Semblance I've ever heard of," Gwyn shrugged, turning on his computer and plugging in his scroll. "It's definitely good though, 5 extra seconds is pretty handy."

"We can agree on that," Tabitha said in agreement.

"Ye," said a muffled Keith, his mouth full of taco.

"Well, now that we've got that all figured out, I'd say we can take it easy for the rest of the night, maybe have our friends come on over before the floor program?" Gwyn suggested.

"Sure, but give me a second," Tabitha said, grabbing her headband and hiding her ears once more. "I more or less trust you guys, but I don't trust the other students. Not yet, at least."

"Yeah, that's fair," Keith said, getting another taco.

"Ye," Orion said, dozing off once more.

"Then in that case, I'll be back in a second," Gwyn said, uploading his recordings to his computer and heading out of the room. He first knocked on RWBY's door, followed by JNPR's, each team opening the door at the same time and seeing Gwyn standing in the middle. "You guys ready to hang? We've got some time to kill before Coco's floor program."

"Yes, lemme in," Yang said, shoving past Gwyn and into REKT's room. Ruby followed her closely after, but made sure not to bump into Gwyn as she walked by. Pyrrha, Ren, and Nora were the next to come out, being more cautious than Yang was. The exception there being Nora, as she was too excited to go into REKT's room.

"Nora, play nice," Ren said, Nora ignoring him and borderline elbow dropping Orion to wake him back up.

"HELLO YES I AM AWAKE AGAIN," Orion shouted, leaping from his chair as Nora laughed at him.

"We'd have woken him back up, but Nora would probably have done a better job of it…" Gwyn muttered, Pyrrha nodding next to him.

"Despite our short time together, her… hyper tendencies lead me to agree with you," she said, Jaune poking out and looking into the hall.

"Yeah, that's for sure," he said, rubbing his back. "We just got our beds set up, and the first thing she did was jump on them."

"That's not too bad," Gwyn said, but Jaune sighed.

"I was still on my bed when she started jumping," he lamented.

"Oh, yeah, that makes a lot more sense," Gwyn nodded.

Pyrrha couldn't help but chuckle for a moment. "His face was buried in his pillow when she started, so we couldn't exactly tell what was going on. It took us a few minutes to realize that she was on him…"

"7 minutes, to be exact," Jaune said, standing up straight accompanied by the sound of several painful cracks. "The image of my alarm clock was burned into my eyes while she was jumping; I thought it'd be the last thing I'd ever see…"

"Well, you survived that and the initiation, you're doing great!" Gwyn cheered, patting him on the shoulder.

"Ah, don't do that!" he yelped as he recoiled. "She landed on my shoulder a few times too."

"Ah, my bad," Gwyn said, reeling his hand back. "You should have put your aura up for that one, man…"

"I told him the same thing," Pyrrha said, taking over for Jaune. "Anyway, let's head to your room!"

"Wait, what about me?" Jaune asked, Gwyn turning to him and shrugging.

"I mean, it's a universal invite for you guys," Gwyn said. "So like you can come too, I don't mind. Oh, the same goes for you two as well," he said, leaning back into RWBY's room.

"Oh, really?" Blake said, looking up from her book.

"I have better things to do right now," Weiss retorted.

"Like what?" Blake asked, turning to Weiss.

"Uh," she stuttered, trying to come up with something better to do. "Coming…"

"I'll join as well," Blake added, marking her spot and following after Weiss as they made their way over to REKT's room.

"Blake check it out, they have a taco machine!" Yang cheered, holding up fresh tacos for both herself and Blake.

"How did you get a taco machine…?" Blake asked quietly as she accepted the taco from Yang.

"You see, I went to the store and bought it," Gwyn said, gesturing to Orion, "and then he carried it back."

"And I got my beanbag chair," Orion said, gesturing to the chair that Nora was now sitting in. "NORA GET OUT MAH BEANS."

"These are MY beans now, big boy!" she shouted back before Orion picked her up and put her on the couch, moving back to his beanbag chair.

"MY beans, no beans for you," he said, leaning back into his chair.

"Nora, please respect Orion's beans," Ren said, thinking for a moment and then realising he'd accidentally played along with the two of them. "Oh, no."

Looking up, he saw that the two of them were looking at him rather smugly.

"It's bean time," Orion said, wiggling his eyebrows at Ren.

"I…" Ren said, sighing and slumping over. "I guess it's bean time."

"Aight cool," Orion said, walking over to the vending machine and getting Ren a taco. "Bean time."

"Ah, I see," Ren said, accepting the taco and taking a bite.

"Don't deny me beans any longer! I want some too!" Nora shouted.

"Bro it's a vending machine, just get a taco," Orion said as he gestured to the machine.

"I've got my eye on you…" Nora muttered as she walked to the vending machine, getting herself a taco to munch on. "Never mind, I've now got my eye on this taco."

"Ren we've done it, we've found a way to calm Nora," Orion said, throwing his arms up in praise as Ren nodded, not wanting to talk with his mouth full. Such manners.

"No yeah, go nuts with that thing, it holds more than we can eat in a week," Gwyn said, turning to see Keith sitting on the floor with a pile of tacos in front of him. "Yes, that includes Keith."

"That's impressive," Tabitha admitted.

"Your room is so large…" Pyrrha said, looking around at the extra space REKT had in comparison to both RWBY and JNPR.

"Paid extra and got an RA room," Gwyn said, getting himself a taco. "Honestly, I'm surprised Weiss didn't grab this one. I may have money, but not SDC money."

"No one has SDC money," Tabitha added, nodding in response.

"Just because I have the money doesn't mean I want to spend it all," Weiss retorted, crossing her arms.

"Weiss, you had butlers with you when you first got here," Ruby pointed out.

"They were my father's idea!" Weiss shouted in a vain attempt to defend herself.

"Sure," Gwyn laughed, taking a bite of his taco. "Anyway, we've got about an hour before the floor program. What's the plan?"

"Well, you've got a pretty impressive setup there, Elgin," Yang said, glancing at his gaming rig. "Are your skills as impressive, or is all that tech to compensate for something?"

"Oh Yang, you doubt me even now, huh?" Gwyn said slyly. "Alright, I see how it is. I'm game."

"I am going to STEAMROLL you, Elgin," Yang said, cracking her knuckles.

"Ladies and gents, we're about to watch someone get their cheeks clapped," Orion said, shifting his beanbag chair to somewhere where he could get a better view of the tv without blocking it.

"And it's gonna be Gwyn!" Yang yelled, accepting the controller.

[-0-]

"So… what's the score now?" Blake asked, turning to Tabitha beside her.

"16-0, Gwyn's favor," Tabitha said.

"One more game! I can beat you!" Yang shouted, looking over at Gwyn.

"Same thing you said about nine games ago," Gwyn said, leaning over to Yang smugly.

"Wow, the only person I've ever seen beat Yang at this game is our uncle…" Ruby said to Jaune sitting beside her on the couch.

"He must be pretty good, I don't think I could beat her either," Jaune mumbled back.

"You couldn't," assured Ruby.

"I kinda do this for a living, so I have to be good," Gwyn said over his shoulder to Jaune and Ruby. "All kinds of tournaments all the time, not just outright combat."

"Yeah yeah, just hit start so I can hit you," Yang declared, glaring at the screen.

"I'm not interrupting, am I?"

Everyone present turned to the door to see Coco standing there in the doorway, hand on her hip.

"Oh hey, what's up?" Keith asked, as he too was still there.

"Well, the floor program is in a few minutes, and there seems to be about 12 students missing," Coco said, looking around the room.

"I was going to come, but they wouldn't let me leave!" Weiss shouted, pointing at the others.

"Weiss, you've had almost as many tacos as Keith, you had no intentions of leaving," Tabitha said, looking annoyingly at Weiss.

"Free is free, I'm not going to say no," she jabbed back.

"Trust me Weiss, we noticed," Yang added, looking at her from the floor.

"Keith did have a lot of tacos…" Jaune mumbled, Ruby nodding next to him.

"Not as many as me though!" Nora shouted, a pile of wrappers behind her.

"Nora, it wasn't a competition," Ren said.

"Because he was against ME," she declared, Coco nodding in the corner.

"Right. So, floor program," she said. "I was planning to have a pizza party or something, but it seems like food may not be the best idea for you right now…"

"Oh my bad," Gwyn said. "If I'd known that was the case, I'd have held off on getting that vending machine."

"You know, I think it was a good idea," Coco admitted. "You guys seem to be getting along well enough without a floor program."

"I suppose it helps that some of us already knew each other," Pyrrha admitted, "but this was a fantastic opportunity to make new friends."

"Also a great chance to bully Yang in this game," Gwyn snickered, earning a punch that knocked him to the floor.

"Ah, I've seen you stream this," Coco said, looking at the game in question. "Aren't you ranked?"

"Yeah, I'm currently number 24 worldwide," he groaned, forcing himself back to a sitting position. "You didn't have to hit me so hard, you know…"

"That's what you get for being rude," Orion said, earning a glare from Gwyn.

"Whatever," Yang said, turning to Orion. "Big Red, taco me."

Orion did as he was asked, but sadly did so in a way different to what Yang wanted. Rather than hand her the taco like a normal person, Orion got one from the machine and threw it at her, which she was absolutely not expecting. "Embrace the powerful tacos," he said like an absolute madman, confusing Yang even further. Due to this, it broke against her face, bits of meat and cheese being stuck in her hair and beans dripping down her face.

"Hey Orion, remember what you said about getting what you deserve for being rude?" Gwyn asked, leaning to the side of Yang so he could get a better look at his co-leader.

"I refuse," he said before immediately using his Semblance to flee, Yang hearing him sprinting down the hall and chasing after him, her hair aflame as she made to follow him.

"Yeah he's dead," Gwyn and Ruby said at once, the two of them looking at each other and laughing. "Jinx!" they each shouted, laughing even more.

"I'm glad your leader seems to be just as mature as ours," Weiss said, leaning over to Tabitha. "Both of them."

"They're accomplished enough though, so it's mostly ok," Tabitha said, shrugging. "Orion is strong as hell, and Gwyn is incredibly strategic."

"Gwydion? Strategic? Unlikely," Weiss said, scoffing.

"Yo I'm sitting right here," Gwyn said, cleaning up the bits of taco that had fallen to the floor.

"I gotta agree with Tabitha here," Keith said, finishing another taco. "It was his idea on how to beat that big dinosaur thing."

"I was lucky Orion was able to throw it," Gwyn said, waving it off. "Beyond that, I just shot it."

"You have really good aim though!" Ruby added, Gwyn turning to her and throwing up his signature hand sign.

"I try," he said. "I plan to uphold my end of the Sniper Gang."

"Um, yeah, Sniper Gang!" Ruby replied awkwardly.

"Trust me, you'll get used to it," Gwyn said, finishing up and throwing away the scraps.

"I'm personally starting to get pretty sleepy," Tabitha said, yawning and leaning back. "If it's not too much of a hassle, I might start winding down."

"Oh, it's no worry at all!" Pyrrha said, standing and brushing herself off. "We have plenty of free days, so it's not as if this was our only chance to spend time with one another."

"We'll likely find each other in many of the same classes as well," Ren added.

"I'd hope so, we went through so much trouble to be on the same team," Nora said, pouting.

"I'd… enjoy doing this again," Blake admitted, hopping down from Tabtha's bed, and Weiss following after.

"I'll consider wasting my time here again," Weiss scoffed, grabbing another taco and returning to her own room.

"Ain't she just a big ball of sunshine, so warm and fuzzy," Keith muttered from his spot on the floor, standing up and cracking his back.

"Pretty cold if you ask me…" Ruby muttered in response.

"Yes Ruby, that's the joke," Keith said. Ruby tried to kick him, but he easily saw her attempting to do so and phased through the kick, leaving her off balance and allowing her to fall to the floor. She would have done so too, but luckily for her Gwyn was a graceful host and traded places with her such that she didn't hit the ground, Gwyn himself being off balance for a moment before righting himself.

"Phew, thanks," she said, shuddering for a moment. "That felt… pretty weird."

"Instantly appearing somewhere else definitely isn't normal, so that's very understandable," Gwyn said, rolling his shoulders.

"Well, uh, anyway, thanks for having us!" Ruby said, heading back to her own room, Blake following after her.

"I guess we should get going too," Jaune said, Nora groaning and hopping down from Gwyn's bed, Ren doing so far more quietly and following Jaune as he went back to JNPR's room.

"I'll see you tomorrow during classes!" Pyrrha said as she waved to Gwyn, following after her teammates as she went back to her room.

"Well, I'm gonna take this chance to take a shower then," Gwyn said, removing most of his excess gear and hanging it on his bedpost before grabbing some towels and a change of clothes, putting them in the bathroom and locking their main door.

"Wait what about Orion?" Keith asked. "Aren't you gonna help him?"

"Bro, he threw a taco at Yang's face, I'm not getting in the middle of that," Gwyn responded.

"Well, what about the door?" Keith asked.

"He's got a key," Gwyn added before heading into the bathroom and locking himself in. Those in the room heard Gwyn start the water and check the heat before hearing him then recoil in pain.

"Oh, the water is really hot by the way," Tabitha said, not looking up from her scroll.

"YEAH I NOTICED," Gwyn shouted back, furiously adjusting the knobs to lower the temperature.

"You need some like burn cream or something?" Keith asked, genuinely concerned.

"NO," Gwyn shouted back.

"I think he's fine," Tabitha said.

"I hope so," Keith said. "If he passes out in there it's gonna make my shower awkward."

[-0-]

Later on in the evening, after Gwyn had finished up in the bathroom and Keith had taken his shower, the three still there had mostly settled down; Gwyn had turned off the main light so Tabitha could try and get some sleep, he himself was sitting at his desk and editing his video, and Keith was in the bathroom brushing his teeth.

Despite the serenity of the situation, it was broken shortly after by Orion appearing in the locked room, standing there in dead silence as they heard Yang barreling by in rage, the sound of her footfalls waning in the distance.

"Why did none of you help me?" Orion shouted once he was sure Yang was gone.

"You never asked," Tabitha said, once again refusing to look up from her scroll.

"It was kinda implied, you fucks," Orion shot back, Keith shrugging at him in the mirror.

"Not really," he said, gargling some mouthwash and checking his teeth, going back in once more with his brush.

"Plus, it's Yang. Even if you'd told us to help, we probably wouldn't have," Gwyn said, he too still focusing on his editing.

"That's fair, but fuck you," Orion said, hanging his hoodie on a bedpost and laying down on his bed. "Oh, by the way, I like to sleep naked. Is that cool?"

"No," said every other member of Team REKT at once, immediately shutting him down.

"Fuck ok, um, is shirtless of then?" he asked, Keith Tabitha, and Gwyn turning to him and thinking for a moment before shrugging and nodding. "Ok, I brought some pajama bottoms just in case."

"Good," the others said in tandem once more.

They stayed there in silence for a moment before Keith closed the door and changed, shortly thereafter coming out wearing… a large duck onesie.

"Bro, the fuck," Orion asked, looking at him in shock.

"I like ducks," Keith replied adamantly.

"Ok, THAT'S adorable," Tabitha said, looking down at Keith.

"It's pretty cute bro," Gwyn said in agreement.

"Ducks are cute too," Keith said, hopping into his own bed.

"You aren't wrong," Orion said, looking up in thought.

"I'm glad we agree," Keith said, wrapping himself in his blanket.

"Aaand, there!" Gwyn cheered, finishing his editing. "Now once I finish up my intro and outro and splice those in, I'll be ready to post this."

"Sweet," Orion said.

"And with that, I will now get in bed," Gwyn said, hopping into bed after shutting off his computer. "I am ready for all that sleep I'm about to get, let me tell you."

"You get more of it by not talking about it, you know," Tabitha said, glaring at Gwyn.

"True," he said, nodding. "Well, night then," he finished, turning over in his bed.

"Night," the others said, going quiet.

At least at first.

It took for a moment, but eventually Orion shifted, looking up at the bunk above him. "Poopie," he whispered, hoping to get Gwyn back in on their previous shenanigans. To his surprise though, the 'poopie' he got in response wasn't from Gwyn, but it was in fact from Keith.

"Poopie," Orion said, slightly louder.

"Poopie!" Keith whisper-yelled, Gwyn now awake enough to get back in on it.

Sadly, despite their willingness to joke around, Tabitha was NOT in agreement.

"I have to try and sleep through four years of this…" she mumbled quietly, covering her face with one of her pillows. "I'm doomed…"

And with that, she struggled to drift off to sleep, but did so nonetheless when the boys got too tired to continue, falling asleep themselves, marking the end of their first day of class together as Team REKT.

**

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**A/N: Well, chapter 6 complete, and Orion's semblance is revealed. So that's everyone! ;) But now we have to get into some more fun shit. What exactly? You'll just have to find out. Oni, I miss anything?**

**Oni: No, I don't think so. That being said, if anyone has more in-depth questions regarding the team's Semblances, feel free to leave a review to ask, we'd be more than happy to talk about it more.**

**OniHelix out!**

**'Till All Are One!**


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